Illness behaviour and the measurement of class differentials in morbidity

Summ. measures of morbidity are necessary for research and health policy purposes but those used at present may provide unreliable estimates of the magnitude of social class differences in health. Class differences in illness behaviour will affect self-reported health measures independently of any differences in health. The aspects of illness behaviour which are relevant will vary with the morbidity measure. It may be possible to test for illness behaviour effects during data analysis; if not, the effects need to be considered when results are interpreted. Future studies might develop a battery of standardized instruments to estimate the proportion of a population which is free of serious disease.