ABSTRACT
Professionals have been puzzled by seniors highly positive statements of their health and life satisfaction when compared with their own criteria-based ratings. In Aging and Health Care, Chappell, Strain, and Blandford review the current literature on health status and aging and summarize:
… numerous surveys now exist that indicate a better subjective rating of health than would be assumed from the more objective measures of disease and disability [1, p. 39].
But, also:
Diagnoses by physicians and self-reports may be highly correlated. These are similar to one another when individuals are asked about actual behavior rather than global questions about their health [1, p. 34].
