Background: There is a need for an instrument to record a life-course perspective of self-rated health.
Aim: To test the "health-line", a simple, comprehensive method of collecting data on self-rated health over time.
Method: In 1996, a questionnaire was mailed to people who in 1985 were aged between 25 and 34 years old and had a sick-leave spell >28 days with "back diagnoses". They were asked to rate their global health graphically with a "health-line" for the years 1985-95. Official data on sick leave and disability pension were obtained for the same period. In all, 37 out of 52 men and 60 out of 83 women answered; that is, they drew a health-line.
Result: A statistically significant negative correlation between the mean number of absence days due to ill health and the health-line data was found for every year (r= -0.35 to -0.53; p<0.001) and for the whole period 1985-95 (r=-0.546; p<0.001) respectively.
Conclusion: The method worked well and is well worth further development and testing.