Poor Physical Health Days is the average number of days in the previous 30 days that a person could not perform work or household tasks due to physical illness. The self-reported data relies on the accuracy of each respondent’s estimate of the number of limited activity days they experienced in the previous 30 days. The ranks are based on the preceding year’s data from CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The BRFSS telephone survey has traditionally been completed by people using landlines. During the fielding of the 2011 BRFSS, the methodology was updated to include cellular telephones due to the large number of households that contain only cellular telephones and no landline telephones. Because of these changes, estimates of poor physical health days from the 2012 Edition onward cannot be compared to estimates from previous years. Shifts in estimates from previous years may be the result of the new methods, rather than measurable changes in the percentages.

Poor physical health days are a general indicator of the population’s health related quality of life. The number of poor physical health days reveals information about all cause morbidity within the population regardless of the disease or health condition. Along with poor mental health days, it provides insight into perceived overall health. Poor physical health is not only an indicator of current health status but a predictor of future health and future medical care; it has been shown to be a predictor of 1-month and 12-month hospitalizations and office visits.[1]