The validity of self-rated health as a measure of health status among young military personnel: evidence from a cross-se
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The validity of self-rated health as a measure of health status among young military personnel: evidence from a cross-sectional survey Christopher K Haddock*1, Walker SC Poston1, Sara A Pyle2, Robert C Klesges3, Mark W Vander Weg4, Alan Peterson5 and Margaret Debon6 Address: 1School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2411 Holmes Street, Room MC-M03, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA, 2Departments of Preventive Medicine and Family Medicine, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, 1750 Independence Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64106, USA, 3Department of Preventive Medicine, St. Jude's Hospital, 66 N. Pauline, Suite 633, Memphis, TN 38163, USA, 4Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52241, USA, 5Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, 3939 Medical Drive, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA and 6Health Sciences Center, University of Tennessee, 5050 Poplar Avenue, Suite 1800, Memphis, TN 38157, USA Email: Christopher K Haddock* - [email protected]; Walker SC Poston - [email protected]; Sara A Pyle - [email protected]; Robert C Klesges - [email protected]; Mark W Vander Weg - [email protected]; Alan Peterson - [email protected]; Margaret Debon - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 29 August 2006 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2006, 4:57
doi:10.1186/1477-7525-4-57
Received: 09 December 2005 Accepted: 29 August 2006
This article is available from: http://www.hqlo.com/content/4/1/57 © 2006 Haddock et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: Single item questions about self ratings of overall health status are widely used in both military and civilian surveys. Limited information is available to date that examines what relationships exist between self-rated health, health status and health related behaviors among relatively young, healthy individuals. Methods: The current study uses the population of active duty United States Air Force recruits (N = 31,108). Participants completed surveys that asked about health behaviors and health states and were rated their health on a continuum from poor to excellent. Results: Ratings of health were consistently lower for those who used tobacco (F = 241.7, p < .001), reported binge drinking (F = 69.0, p < .001), reported drinking and driving (F = 19.4, p < .001), reported taking health risks (F = 109.4, p < .001), were depressed (F = 256.1, p < .001) and were overweight (F = 39.5, p < .001). Conclusion: Given the consistent relationship between self-rated overall health and factors important to military health and fitness, self-rated health appears to be a valid measure of health status among young military troops.
Background Single item self-assessments of heal
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