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International Journal of Epidemiology 2007 36(6):1161-1164; doi:10.1093/ije/dym236
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2007; all rights reserved.

Editorial

Self-rated health: caught in the crossfire of the quest for ‘true’ health?

Amélie Quesnel–Vallée

Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, Department of Sociology, McGill University, 1020 Pine Avenue West, Montreal QC H3A 1A2 Canada.

E-mail: amelie.quesnelvallee@mcgill.ca

Accepted 18 October 2007

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

This issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology features three papers that assess the predictive power of self-rated health (SRH) for mortality between various socio-economic groups, respectively within three developed countries (France, The Netherlands and the United States).1–3 The studies published in this issue follow in the footsteps of Burstrom and Fredlund4 and Van Doorslaer and Gerdtham5 who found that the association of SRH with mortality does not differ by either occupational group or income in Sweden. However, the similarities end there, as all the studies presented here found some evidence for a modifying effect of socio-economic status (SES) on the relationship between SRH and mortality, albeit with gradients in sometimes opposite directions. Mixed findings such as these could be—misleadingly—taken as evidence that SRH is not a reliable measure of health for the study of social inequalities in health; instead, in this editorial, I will show how these differences provide . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Is SRH a good predictor of mortality?

The quest for ‘true’ health

How do individuals assess their SRH?

Making sense of mixed findings

How health selection can replicate a study design

Are higher SES individuals better at assessing their ‘true’ health?

What's next for SRH?


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