The project is analyzing the association between health complaints as estimated by the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) and self perceived health. The project was originally begun to satisfy the requirements for a master's degree thesis that explored the responses in men over 55 years of age in a case-control study. Over the past year, analyses have been expanded to all men and women in the BLSA who have completed the CMI. The goal has been to explore what clinical symptoms and diseases contribute the most to self- perceived health and what effect does age have on this association. A moderate degree of predictability was observed, with cardiovascular/hypertension questions being the best predictors of self perceived health for men at all ages, while for women these questions were predictive only in the oldest age group.
