SELF-REPORTED HEALTH STATUS AND MEDICAL HISTORY

The relationship of food intake and lifestyle to health is a central theme in this study. Thus, a valid and reliable method of measuring health was required. Fillenbaum (1984) [4] reviews all available questionnaires measuring the health status of the elderly and concludes that the multi-level assessment instrument (MAI) designed by Lawton et al (1982) [9] is a valid and reliable measure to use on such populations (see Appendix A1). It is carefully constructed and has been tested for reliability and validity. It includes a physical health domain index (or total health score), composed of subindices measuring self rated health, health behaviour and health conditions. The subindices can be scored by counting or summing and can be used in isolation from each other and from the rest of the questionnaire. A higher score in all cases indicates better health. All questions and subindices are based upon subjective reports from the interviewee. The health questions and subindices include