Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

The Diabetes Educator

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Research on Aging
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ferraro, K. F.
Right arrow Articles by Feller, J. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Self and Age Differences in Defining Health Situations

A Comparison of Measurement Strategies

Kenneth F. Ferraro

Purdue University ferraro{at}sri.soc.purdue.edu

Jacquelyn Rupp Feller

Lutheran College

The purpose of this research is to examine how individuals evaluate bodily and medical concerns and define health situations. Responses to a fixed-response health-rating question and an open-ended question probing personal problems are compared and predicted with a set of health status indicators including measures of functional limitations and morbidity. Activity limitation is the strongest predictor of each measure among this national sample of adults (N = 3,497). Age is associated with poorer rated health and more defined health problems in most of the adult years, but this trend is reversed in older ages. Despite higher morbidity and functional limitations among African American women, they were less likely than other respondents to define their health as problematic. In addition, evaluative components of the self such as self-esteem influence ratings of health but not health problem definitions. The findings confirm the overall utility of the self-assessed health as a reliable estimate of current health status and suggest that spontaneously mentioning health problems reflects current as well as future health concerns.

Research on Aging, Vol. 18, No. 2, 175-201 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/0164027596182002
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social ScienceHome page
V. G. Cicirelli
Fear of death in mid-old age.
J. Gerontol. B. Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci., March 1, 2006; 61(2): P75 - P81.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social ScienceHome page
J. Liang, B. A. Shaw, N. Krause, J. M. Bennett, E. Kobayashi, T. Fukaya, and Y. Sugihara
How Does Self-Assessed Health Change With Age? A Study of Older Adults in Japan
J. Gerontol. B. Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci., July 1, 2005; 60(4): S224 - S232.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Applied GerontologyHome page
N. R. Chumbler, D. Dobbs-Kepper, C. Beverly, and C. Beck
Eligibility for In-Home Respite Care: Ethnic Status and Rural Residence
Journal of Applied Gerontology, June 1, 2000; 19(2): 151 - 169.
[Abstract] [PDF]