Self reported health and mortality: ecological analysis based on electoral wards across the United Kingdom

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Abstract
Introduction The question in the UK 1991 census that asked respondents whether they had a limiting long term illness proved useful for allocating health service funding.1 In the 2001 census a question on general health in the previous year was added to improve further the understanding of health needs and refine resource allocation. However, these indicators differ from objective measures of health in that they are also dependent on the perception of, and propensity to report, health problems. We explore the relation between the self reported responses to the two census questions cited above and mortality across the UK regions.