Predicting Mortality and Healthcare Utilization with a Single Question

OBJECTIVE: We compared single- and multi-item measures of general self-rated health (GSRH) to predict mortality and clinical events a large population of veteran patients. DATA SOURCE/STUDY SETTING: We analyzed prospective cohort data collected from 21,732 patients as part of the Veterans Affairs Ambulatory Care Quality Improvement Project (ACQUIP), a randomized controlled trial investigating quality-of-care interventions. STUDY DESIGN: We created an age-adjusted, logistic regression model for each predictor and outcome combination, and estimated the odds of events by response category of the GSRH question and compared the discriminative ability of the predictors by developing receiver operator characteristic…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• RW
  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• NI
  National Institutes of Health