The socio-economic and cultural influences on the perception and reporting of self-reported health in Northern Ireland.

Census-based measures of self-reported health are widely used throughout the UK to assess need and as part of resource allocation formulae to distribute HPSS resources. It is important to know that such measures are not significantly biased by social or cultural factors. The proposed study aims to use the NILS-Mortality Linkage Study to examine the relationship between self-reported health in the 2001 census and subsequent mortality in the following five years to see if this relationship is modified because of the individual respondent’s religious affiliation, country of birth, or by levels of chronic unemployment in the area in which they live. These associations are strongly indicated by other research evidence. The results from the proposed research should help determine the direction and extent of any cultural and socio-economic factors influencing the reporting of SRH in Northern Ireland.

Outputs:

Catney, G. and O’Reilly, D. (2010) ”Unemployment and poor health: testing the robustness of self-reported health measures.’ – presented at the British Society of Population Studies Annual Conference, University of Exeter, 13th – 15th September 2010.