Self-Reported Physical Health Among Aged Adults

A multiple indicator structural equation model is proposed to delineate the various aspects of self-reported physical health. In particular, it specifies structural linkages among five measures of health including chronic illness, number of sick days, physical self-maintenance, instrumental activities of daily living, and subjective rating of one's own health. The proposed model is evaluated by using data from the 1968 National Senior Citizens Survey. The results support the predictions derived from the proposed model and are consistently replicated across four randomly divided subsamples.