Research: I told you I was ill

Self-assessment of health is a good predictor of mortality, Alison Elliott and colleagues have found.

There is interest in understanding the link between the symptoms experienced by people and their future health. The number of symptoms reported, for example, is linked to the likelihood of death in the following year. Using data from a Scottish cohort study, Elliott et al. found that after chronic conditions and other influences such as age were factored out, people's assessment of their healthiness was a better predictor of mortality than symptom number.

External link

• Elliott AM et al. Symptom experience and subsequent mortality: results from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study. BMC Health Serv Res 2006;6:158.