239809 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2009: Determinants of self-rated health for adults with chronic diseases

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Eva Tseng, MD, MPH , School of Medicine, Tufts University, Boston, MA
Steven A. Cohen, DrPH, MPH , Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts School of Medicine, Boston, MA
Chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States accounting for 70% of all deaths. As the U.S. population continues to age, the burden of chronic diseases will become even more apparent and significant. Self-rated health is an important indicator of health and is a significant predictor of mortality and morbidity. The purpose of this study is to examine the key predictors of poor self-rated health status among those with and without chronic diseases. Using the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey, we performed multiple logistic regression analysis to estimate the effects of 3 main categories of predictors: 1) health care access 2) health behaviors 3) emotional support. We also assessed effect modification by self-reported chronic disease through stratification. Our findings show that individual demographic factors make a greater contribution to self-rated poor health than health behaviors. Age, income (OR=5.597, p<0.001) and education (OR=2.204, p<0.001) were major contributors to self-rated health compared with health behaviors like alcohol consumption (OR=0.999, p<0.001), physical activity and smoking. An important finding is that emotional support was a significant predictor of self-rated health for persons with and without chronic illness but more so for healthy persons. Moreover, insufficient emotional support (“sometimes” or “rarely”) increases the odds of reporting poor health compared to having no emotional support at all. The results of this study have potential implications for research and practice when considering the use of self-rated health status as a marker for evaluating overall health in the context of chronic diseases.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Identify the key predictors of poor self-rated health status among those with and without chronic diseases. Describe the associations between self-rated health status and health care access, health behaviors and emotional support among those with and without chronic diseases.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have conducted all the relevant background research and analyses for this abstract.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.