Self-rated general health
Sex differences
Mean scores were fairly similar across males and females in 2006/07.
Among young people aged 15 to 24, young women rated their general health as slightly worse than young men (72.4 for young women compared with 76.9 for young men). This pattern was reversed among older people, with men aged 35 and over reporting lower levels of general health than women.
Women’s mean general health scores were highest in the middle two age groups (35 to 54 years), whereas for males, they were highest among young men aged 15 to 24 and declined with age.
| Age in years | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15-24 | 25-34 | 35-44 | 45-54 | 55-64 | 65-74 | 75+ | |
| (95% CI) | (95% CI) | (95% CI) | (95% CI) | (95% CI) | (95% CI) | (95% CI) | |
| Male | 76.9 | 76.1 | 75.6 | 73.3 | 72.3 | 70.3 | 66.8 |
| (75.2 - 78.6) | (74.5 - 77.7) | (74.4 - 76.9) | (71.7 - 75.0) | (70.8 - 73.8) | (68.4 - 72.1) | (64.5 - 69.0) | |
| Female | 72.4 | 76.0 | 77.3 | 77.4 | 74.8 | 71.6 | 68.0 |
| (70.7 - 74.0) | (74.5 - 77.6) | (76.1 - 78.5) | (75.8 - 78.9) | (73.0 - 76.6) | (69.5 - 73.8) | (65.9 - 70.1) | |
| Total | 74.6 | 76.1 | 76.5 | 75.4 | 73.6 | 71.0 | 67.5 |
| (73.5 - 75.7) | (75.0 - 77.2) | (75.6 - 77.4) | (74.2 - 76.6) | (72.5 - 74.6) | (69.5 - 72.4) | (65.9 - 69.0) | |
Source: New Zealand Health Survey 2006/07. “95%CI” (95 percent confidence interval) signifies that there is a 95 percent chance that the true value falls within this range. If the respective confidence intervals (in brackets) do not overlap, the difference between scores is likely to be statistically significant.
