Impact of socio-demographic variables and morbid conditions on general health component of perceived health using SF-36 form

Background: Perceived health (PH) is a subjective assessment of the health and it is a strong, independent and reliable predictor of morbidity, mortality. It includes so many aspects that are difficult to capture clinically such as incipient disease, physiological, psychological reserves. We assessed the impact of diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN), co-morbidity and other associated factors on the general health (GH) dimension of the PH of the patients attending the outpatient department (OPD), Inpatient department (IPD), rural health training centre (RHTC) and urban health training centre (UHTC) of Shri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences (SRMS, IMS), Bareilly.Methods: PH status of the patients was assessed by the GH dimension of the physical component summary of PH using the 36-Items short form health survey (SF-36).Results: The impact of morbidity deteriorate the GH score but hypertensive patients scored poor results as compared to those with DM and comorbid patients (p>0.05). Age was inversely related with GH scores but male gender, higher education (p<0.05) and good occupation were all associated with higher GH score. There was not much influence of geographical area on the GH scores but urban score slightly better and the association was insignificant (p>0.05).Conclusions: Male young patients from urban area, educated and good job performed better score for GH and association was significant for education and occupation. The presence of morbidity and co-morbid condition deteriorate the GH of the patients. The impact of various socio-demographic factors on the PH status was also evident in the study.