1. This study examines the changing relationship between self-rated health and mortality over time.
2. The results show that individuals are better at assessing their health in 2002 than they were in 1980, leading to a stronger relationship between self-rated health and mortality across all levels of self-rated health.
3. Potential mechanisms for this increase include more schooling, more cognitive ability, and exposure to more health information; however, the source of information is important as the relationship between self-rated health and mortality is smaller among those who use the internet to find health information than among those who do not.
The article “The Increasing Predictive Validity of Self-Rated Health” by Jason Schnittker and Valerio Bacak is a well-researched piece that provides an interesting insight into the changing relationship between self-rated health and mortality over time. The authors provide evidence that individuals are better at assessing their own health in 2002 than they were in 1980, leading to a stronger relationship between self-rated health and mortality across all levels of self-rated health. They also explore potential mechanisms for this increase such as more schooling, more cognitive ability, and exposure to more health information.
The article is generally reliable with regards to its research methods; it uses data from the General Social Survey (GSS) linked to the National Death Index through 2008 which provides a large sample size for analysis. Furthermore, it takes into account potential confounding factors such as changes in causes of death over time which could affect the results. However, there are some limitations that should be noted when considering the trustworthiness of this article. Firstly, while it does consider potential mechanisms for the increasing predictive validity of self-rated health, it does not provide any concrete evidence or data to support these claims; instead relying on speculation rather than hard facts which could weaken its overall reliability. Additionally, while it does note that different sources of information can affect the predictive validity of self-rated health (i.e., using the internet vs not using it), it does not explore other possible sources such as media or healthcare professionals which could have an effect on its accuracy as well. Finally, while it does take into account changes in causes of death over time when analyzing its results, it does not consider other external factors such as socioeconomics or lifestyle choices which could also influence both mortality rates and how individuals rate their own health.
In conclusion, this article provides an interesting insight into how self-rated health has changed over time with regards to its predictive validity for mortality rates; however there are some limitations that should be taken into consideration when evaluating its trustworthiness and reliability including lack of concrete evidence for certain claims made by the authors as well as unexplored external factors which could influence both mortality rates and how individuals rate their own health.