The Contribution of Biomarkers versus Self-Reported Measures for Understanding Self-Rated Health

Noreen Goldman, Princeton University
Dana A. Glei, Georgetown University
Ming-Cheng Chang, Taiwan Provincial Institute of Family Planning

This study examines the importance of biomarkers for understanding self-ratings of health status, based on recent data that comprise a broad range of clinical information together with extensive self-reports of physical and psychological well-being. Ordered probit models are estimated on a sample of 928 respondents aged 54 and older who participated in an ongoing national survey in Taiwan. Most of the biomarkers are significantly associated with self-rated health, even in the presence of control variables. The largest effects pertain to body mass index, ratio of total to HDL cholesterol (among men) and presence of the e4 allele of the APOE gene (among women). Yet, many of the self-reported measures of physical health reveal as large, if not larger, impacts. Although this analysis has demonstrated the importance of biomarkers for self-rated health, the results also suggest that the clinical measures are less powerful predictors than self-reports about diverse aspects of well-being.