A lot of the research would say that when people answer that question--how's your health?--they actually are using their own age group as a reference. When you ask someone who is 85, how are you doing?, they don't look at you as the 28-year-old interviewer and say, well, not very good compared to you. They think of their own reference group and say, well, I'm not doing too badly compared to my peers. In the scientific world that's the kind of explanation for why you get someone younger who has no chronic diseases thinking, how can you be saying you're healthy? Look, you have two diseases. But really, compared to your peers, you're not doing so badly.
On February 7th, 2008. See this statement in context.