Subjektivní zdraví jako výzkumný artefakt

The article argues that so called self-rated health, the best known predictor of mortality, is a research artefact. In lay theories of health that are strongly influenced by biomedicine, health and death are closely related: the worse one’s health, the shorter one’s life. Therefore, self-rated health implicitly contains one’s estimate of how long one will live. However, it is well known that self-rated life expectancy can be obtained just as well via a direct question. In social – ethnic – groups whose lay theories of health are affected by biomedicine to a limited extent or not at all, the relationship between health and death may be much looser or qualitatively different. In these groups, self-rated health does not correlate with mortality or the correlation is weak. At the same time, upon direct questioning, these people should be just as good in estimating one’s life expectancy as anybody else. For these reasons, so called self-rated health is a redundant concept; an artefact that has been created via unacknowledged biomedicalization of health research. The argument draws on findings of comparative social science (anthropology), STS (Social and Technology Studies) and selected quantitative research.