ABSTRACT
Measurement of subjective phenomena has long been of interest to survey researchers (Turner & Martin, 1984). Although health surveys tend to focus on measuring objective phenomena, use of subjective quality of life measures has grown considerably in recent years (Erickson, Wilson, & Shannon, 1995; Patrick & Erickson, 1993). Questions about health status have become an important component of health surveillance and are generally held as valid indicators of service needs and intervention outcomes (Hennessy, Moriarty, Zack, Scherr, & Brackbill, 1994). Furthermore, self-assessed health status has proved to be a more powerful predictor of mortality and morbidity than many objective measures of health (Idler, 1992). This power, along with the simplicity of administering these questions, makes them potentially quite valuable to researchers.
