Mortality rates and self reported health: database analysis by English local authority area

Mortality rates are commonly used as summary measures current health status when comparing different. Their use in this way is often criticised,, because mortality rates, though readily available objective, are such an extreme measure of ill. Surveys of self reported health, as an alternative to quantifying the health of a population, to be regarded as flawed because of their subjectivity. UK census in 2001 included two measures of reported health. We compared their values for local authority area with the mortality rates for area to find out whether mortality and self health are correlated.