The relationship between retrospective health insurance claims and a health risk appraisal-generated measure of health status.

This research examined the relationship between a measure of health status (defined as the health index--the difference between actual and appraised ages) derived from a health risk appraisal and retrospective health insurance claims taken from one cooperating work organization. A model was defined consisting of 3-year retrospective medical claims as the criterion and age and the health index as predictors. Using a cube-root transformation of medical claims, a significant inverse relationship for age and the health index was identified for men. No relationships were found for women. It was concluded that, for men when age is held constant, a negative relationship exists between retrospective medical claims and a health risk appraisal-generated health status indicator, the health index.