Self-rated health and score on the item “caring about what goes on” on the sense of coherence scale as prospective predictors for all-cause mortality

Self-rated health and score on the item "caring about what goes on" from the Sense of Coherence scale were examined as predictors of all-cause mortality. Higher values on both measures (better health and caring more) predicted lower mortality among 2297 middle-aged men followed for 39 years. Fully adjusted hazard ratios (95 % confidence interval; p-value) were 0.86 (0.80-0.92; <0.001) for self-rated health and 0.96 (0.93-0.99; 0.009) for caring. However, neither substantially improved the discriminatory power of conventional mortality predictors. Nevertheless, they may serve as age-adjusted predictors of mortality, particularly when clinical data are limited or when a comprehensive well-being assessment is desired.