The Correlation Between Health Status and Self-Assessment of Health Condition, and the Relation to Health Services Utilization

Background:

The World Health Organization defines "health" as a state of physical, mental and social well-being of an individual, and not just the absence of disease or illness. Health self-assessment is almost never present in medical and clinical models, which define "health" as the absence of physical disease. On the one hand, some say that there is a correlation between these definitions, and others argue that self-assessment of health is not always consistent with the clinical health status evaluation. Few studies have examined the relationship between self-assessment and health status among residents of the State of Israel in general and among the population residing in the Galilee and Western Galilee area in particular. The studies presented contradictory findings about the health perception among Jewish and Arab population. There are about 600,000 residents in Western Galilee from various population sectors, including Jews, Arabs, Druze and others. This composition of population pretty much reflects the general composition of population in the Galilee area.

Study objective:

This study aims to examine the relation between health status and self-assessment of health condition, their relation to healthcare services utilization, and also to identify the profile of those who assess their health condition as mediocre to poor in general population and according to nationality.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 visitors aged 18 and above of outpatient clinics in the Galilee Medical Center (former Western Galilee Hospital): opthalmology, dental, otolaryngology (ENT) and orthopedic. The target population group for this study is adult residents of the Western Galilee area. The sampling is random. For the aims of the survey five sampling days were selected in each of the four outpatient clinics. On each of the sampling days all visitors of different outpatient clinics were offered to complete a self-administered structured questionnaire adapted specifically for the study.

Inclusion criteria

• Adult residents of the Western Galilee area

Exclusion criteria

• Non literate visitors