A simple measure with complex determinants: investigation of the correlates of self-rated health in older men and women from three continents

Table 2 Self-rated health (SRH) for men and women in Australia, USA, Japan and Korea

	Australia^a		USA^a		Japan^ab		Korea^a
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
N	1,182	6,173	4,343	6,015	1,564	1,977	1,644	2,327
SRH (%)
Poor	2.2	3.2	7.5	9.2	2.7	2.2	30.9	47.4
Fair	10.5	24.3	22.3	23.0	17.3	23.7	31.0	30.9
Good	30.3	42.3	32.6	32.2	41.6	40.9	31.1	18.0
Very good	40.9	24.7	27.8	27.4	19.2	19.0	5.9	2.7
Excellent	16.1	5.4	9.8	8.1	19.1	14.2	1.1	0.9
Mean SRH^c	2.42	2.95	2.90	2.98	2.65	2.81	3.84	4.21
(SD)	(0.95)	(0.91)	(1.09)	(1.09)	(1.06)	(1.02)	(0.97)	(0.89)

^a Without covariates, men reported significantly better health than women in all countries, p < .001.
^b In the Japanese survey response options were totally healthy/relatively healthy/of average health/relatively not very healthy/not at all healthy.
^c Low scores indicate good health; excellent = 1 to poor = 5.
Note: Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

ISSN: 1471-2458