Physical Health

The term physical health broadly refers to the physical state or condition of one’s body, involving everything from the absence of disease and pain to fitness levels and perceived well-being. It includes both subjective and objective components, which, in combination, affect one’s functional health (i.e., the ability to perform different activities) and general well-being.

To assess subjective physical health, researchers usually obtain people’s self-reports. Although such measures are time-efficient and easily accessible, they tend to focus on global assessments of well-being and rely on the respondent as the primary source of information. Such measures are susceptible to distortions such as memory biases. Assessments of objective physical health, in contrast, are based on verifiable outcomes such as the presence of specific symptoms, documented medical diagnoses, physiological indicators, ...