Patients’ self-rated health is a better long-term predictor of illness and death than standard blood tests, blood pressure measurements or other symptomatic evidence a doctor might gather, according to a new study from Rice University.
The study in Psychoneuroendocrinology lays out mounting statistical evidence to support this conclusion.
The team led by Christopher Fagundes, a Rice assistant professor of psychology, and postdoctoral researcher Kyle Murdock found evidence to bolster their theory that self-rated health – what you’d say when a doctor asks how you feel your health is in general – is as good as and perhaps even better than any test to describe one’s physiological condition.
