Self-rated general health and psychiatric disorders in a general population sample

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between nicotine and alcohol dependence, depressive, anxiety and somatoform disorders with self-rated general health (GH). A cohort study of a random sample of the non-institutionalised general population aged 18-64 with a participation rate of 70.2% was carried out in a German area (n = 4075 at baseline). A follow-up of tobacco smokers or heavy drinkers (n = 1083, 79.4% of those who had given consent to be followed-up) was conducted 30 months after baseline measurement. The assessments included self-ratings of GH and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) diagnoses based on the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. The results show that nicotine dependence, anxiety disorders and somatoform disorders moderately predicted self-rated GH at follow-up (general linear model, R² = 0.12). We conclude that psychiatric disorders may contribute to the prediction of a low self-rated GH.