Determinants of self perceived health for canadians aged 40 and older

The self-determined perception of health has been recognized as an important predictor of health care demand and expectations. We used the 2010 Canadian Community Health Survey data to examine determinants of perceived health for Canadians aged 40-64 and 65+. Our results indicate that psychological and social factors have just as strong an influence on perceived health status as the presence of chronic medical conditions. Respondents with less than secondary education were more likely report poor perceived health. Respondents with incomes of more than 80 thousand dollars were 2.16 times more likely to report good health compared with respondents with incomes less than 20 thousand dollars. Being stressed increased the odds of reporting poor health. Respondents who reported feeling stressed were 2.91 more likely to report worse health. When comparing those who described themselves as being very dissatisfied with their financial situation vs. very satisfied, the odds ratio was .38 (CI .18-.80) indicating that financial dissatisfaction was strongly associated with the perception of poor health. The association of the presence of chronic medical conditions with self-perceived health status was much stronger in the younger age group 40-64 than the older age group 65+.