[Development of research on self-rated health in the United States]

The development of research on self-rated health in the United States was reviewed to elucidate the background of the research. The earliest studies utilized medical and objective health data to assess self-rated health. A lack of convenient and exact health measurements in the gerontological research field motivated the development of these early studies. These studies indicated that self-rated health could not serve as a substitute for physicians' ratings. On the other hand, studies of the relationship between psychosocial indices and self-rated health demonstrated that self-rated health was valid as a single measure of overall health, being related to physical, mental and social aspects of well-being. Recent epidemiological investigations have shown that self-rated health is a significant predictor of mortality and changes in activities of daily living. Most of these research studies on self-rated health utilized elderly populations for subjects.