Background: Self-rated health status, a subjective measure, is used broadly to describe an individual overall health status. Our long-term goal is to create a more objective, comprehensive, and accurate measurement of individual health status. We selected 29 health indicators and prioritized them by conducting online surveys. Thirteen of these 29 indicators received relatively more consistent ratings across 3 samples. Objectives: To explore the main and interaction effects of 4 demographic factors as independent variables (age, gender, professional group, and educational level) in the importance ratings of the 13 health indicators. Methods: We conducted a 4-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with post- hoc testing to examine the effects of independent variables on all 13 dependent variables. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlation analysis were also conducted. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: An online survey (>= 18 years). Participants: 791 participants in the USA. Results: 13 health indicators were significantly correlated with each other. Age correlated with most of the health indicators (8 of 13). The MANOVA modeling results indicated that gender, age, and education levels significantly affected the combination of the 13 health indicators. There was a significant interaction effect by age and professional group on 5 health indicators. Conclusions: Age is critical in rating the 13 health indicators. Among all the statistically significant main effects of demographic factors, the effect sizes descend regarding age, gender, educational level, and interaction between age and professional group. These results can provide a foundation for further studies to explore behavioral interventions for individual subgroups.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Ohio University (17-X-142) and Clemson University (IRB2019-441). All participants checked the consent form before answering the survey.

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The data sets and statistical analysis strategies and codes for this paper are available upon request from the corresponding author.