The relationship between well-being and self-rated health among middle-aged and older women in Israel

Self-rated health (SRH) is widely used to assess global health. This study evaluated the SRH of two groups of women aged 40 to 59 and 60+ years. In a sample (n = 306), from a random telephone survey, variables reflecting sociodemographic status, subjective well-being, and health were examined to explain SRH. The results showed that the two groups differed significantly on measures of subjective well-being, as well as in number of comorbidities and level of disability. Two hierarchical regression analyses showed that whereas the sociodemographic characteristics-in particular education, immigrant status, and economic difficulties-explained 24% in the variance in SRH in the middle-aged group, in the older group only economic difficulties was significantly connected with SRH and explained only 8%. Comorbidity was much more salient in the middle-aged group than in the older group, whereas disability was more dominant in the older than in the middle-aged group. This suggests that SRH reflects psychosocial as well as medical and functional aspects of health.