Factors related to self-rated health: a survey among patients and their general practitioners

Figures & data

Table 1. Self-rated health (SRH) in the last 7 days by gender.

	Total (n = 866)		Men (n = 307)		Women (n = 559)
Self-rated health	n	%	n	%	n	%
Very good	141	16.3	55	17.9	86	15.4
Good	311	35.9	116	37.8	195	34.9
Average	214	24.7	76	24.8	138	24.7
Poor	172	19.9	48	15.6	124	22.2
Very poor	28	3.2	12	3.9	16	2.9

Table 2. Characteristics of the patients in the study, and their SRH in the past 7 days.

	n = 866	Poor health
	%	%	p-Values
Total		47.8
Gender			0.126
Men	35.5	44.3
Women	64.5	49.7
Age, years			0.029
18–39	36.7	48.7
40–59	34.9	52.3
60+	28.4	41.1
Civil status			0.007
Married	66.4	44.5
Not married	33.6	54.3
Education level			0.013
10–13 years	54.5	52.1
University 1–4 years	27.7	44.6
University > 4 years	17.8	39.6
Employment status			<0.001
Employed	52.7	34.4
Social security grants	29.3	76.4
Retired	18.0	40.4
Prevalent diagnoses			<0.001
Hypertension	6.5	30.4
Depression/anxiety	4.3	67.6
Asthenia	3.9	73.5
Diabetes	3.1	44.4
Lower back pain	2.7	69.6
Other	79.6	46.3
Chronic conditions			0.001
0	35.3	39.9
1	35.5	48.2
2	18.8	55.8
3+	10.4	58.9
Number of symptoms			<0.001
0–2	17.9	18.1
3–4	17.2	20.8
5–7	24.2	46.2
8–11	19.4	61.9
12+	21.2	83.7
Unexplained conditions*
Burnout syndrome	17.4	72.2	<0.001
Irritable bowel syndrome	16.2	65.0	<0.001
Food intolerance	11.3	66.3	<0.001
Fibromyalgia	9.1	82.3	<0.001
CFS/ME	7.6	80.3	<0.001
Candida syndrome	3.0	65.4	0.068
Amalgam poisoning	3.2	53.6	0.535
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity	1.5	76.9	0.034
Life stressors*
Work situation	27.9	59.9	<0.001
Family	17.6	67.1	<0.001
Economy	12.7	69.1	<0.001
Adverse childhood experiences	11.5	75.0	<0.001
Serious life events	10.2	69.3	<0.001

CFS: chronic fatigue syndrome; ME: myalgic encephalopathy.

The p-values were calculated using Pearson’s Chi-squared test.

*These categories are not mutually exclusive.

Table 3. The association between independent variables and poor SRH in the past 7 days.

		Adjusted
	OR	95% CI	p-Value
Gender (ref. men)
Women	0.91	(0.64–1.30)	0.608
Age, years (18–29)
40–59	0.76	(0.51–1.15)	0.191
60+	0.38	(0.20–0.72)	0.003
Civil status (married)
Not married	1.12	(0.79–1.59)	0.515
Education level (10–13 years)
University 1–4 years	0.94	(0.63–1.39)	0.752
University > 4 years	0.82	(0.52–1.30)	0.392
Employment status (employed)
Social security grants	4.21	(2.78–6.38)	0.000
Retired	2.25	(1.14–4.45)	0.020
Prevalent diagnoses (other)
Hypertension	0.62	(0.30–1.26)	0.349
Depression/anxiety	0.83	(0.36–1.90)	0.544
Asthenia	1.55	(0.62–3.84)	0.656
Diabetes	1.33	(0.53–3.38)	0.183
Lower back pain	2.08	(0.74–5.84)	0.165
Chron. conditions (0)
1	1.17	(0.79–1.74)	0.430
2	1.56	(0.93–2.62)	0.095
3+	1.13	(0.60–2.12)	0.712
Number of symptoms (0–2)
3–4	1.10	(0.61–2.0)	0.757
5–7	3.30	(1.96–5.55)	0.000
8–11	5.79	(3.34–10.04)	0.000
12+	16.48	(8.92–30.46)	0.000
Unexplained conditions (none)
1+	1.32	(0.93–1.88)	0.117
Life stressors (none)
1+	1.14	(0.81–1.61)	0.458

Note. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed.

Figure 1. Percentage of patients reporting poor SRH according to the number of symptoms in the past week.

Figure 2. Predicted probability of poor self-rated health according to the number of symptoms reported by the patients and the most prevalent diagnoses given by their GPs.

Table 4. Individual symptoms reported in the past week and associations with poor SRH.

Symptoms	n	Adj. OR	95% CI	p-Value
Tiredness	270	2.4	(1.7–3.4)	<0.001
Lower back pain	231	1.3	(1.1–2.2)	0.043
Headache	216	1.4	(1.2–2.5)	0.025
Neck pain	212	0.7	(0.5–1.0)	0.067
Sleep problems	200	1.2	(0.8–1.7)	0.329
Shoulder pain	190	0.8	(0.6–1.2)	0.298
Problems concentrating	157	1.9	(1.2–3.0)	0.004
Hand/wrist pain	146	0.9	(0.6–1.4)	0.694
Dizziness	133	1.0	(0.6–1.5)	0.881
Depression	132	2.2	(1.4–3.4)	0.001
Infection	131	1.1	(0.8–1.5)	0.683
Hip pain	130	2.3	(1.5–3.6)	<0.001
Cold hands/feet	130	0.8	(0.5–1.2)	0.263
Knee pain	128	0.8	(0.5–1.1)	0.206
Anxiety	125	1.8	(1.2–2.9)	0.007
Upper back pain	124	0.7	(0.5–1.1)	0.107
Ankle/foot pain	123	0.9	(0.6–1.3)	0.457
Flatulence/bowel gas	120	0.8	(0.5–1.2)	0.334
Memory problems	108	1.2	(0.7–1.9)	0.531
Hot flushes	106	1.1	(0.7–1.7)	0.650
Breathing difficulties	99	1.4	(0.9–2.2)	0.190
Diarrhoea	97	1.1	(0.7–1.6)	0.832
Heart burn/dyspepsia	93	0.8	(0.5–1.3)	0.431
Dry eyes	91	1.0	(0.6–1.5)	0.875
Eczema	85	0.7	(0.4–1.2)	0.314
Palpitations	80	0.8	(0.5–1.4)	0.449
Tinnitus	68	0.6	(0.4–1.0)	0.069
Chest pain	65	1.0	(0.6–1.8)	0.990
Elbow pain	64	1.0	(0.6–1.6)	0.909
Oedema	62	1.4	(0.7–2.7)	0.303
Vomiting	60	0.9	(0.5–1.6)	0.746
Leg cramps	60	0.6	(0.3–1.4)	0.280
Fasciculation/twitches	48	0.6	(0.3–1.1)	0.072
Allergy	48	0.7	(0.4–1.3)	0.238
Constipation	44	0.5	(0.3–1.4)	0.302
Urinary problems	37	0.6	(0.3–1.1)	0.119
Sight problems	31	0.6	(0.3–1.3)	0.183
Fainting	13	1.3	(0.3–6.0)	0.718

Estimates of ORs with their 95% CIs obtained from binary logistic regression model II adjusted for age, gender and the number of symptoms. Significant differences (p < 0.05) are marked in bold.