When researchers recently asked more than 2,000 people to compare their own health to the health of others, the answers added up to a mathematical impossibility: more than half of those questioned believed that the health of others was going in the wrong direction, and only 17 percent believed that there own health was going in the wrong direction. Wait, there's more delusion where that came from. Nearly 30 percent of the respondents gave themselves an A for managing their personal health, while 92 percent of doctors gave them a
C or lower. Nearly a third of the study respondents gave themselves an A for
eating healthy, while 92 percent of doctors gave them a C or
lower. And roughly one third gave themselves an A for getting regular exercise, while 91 percent of physicians gave them a C or lower.
What's up with those numbers? HealthDay reports that the researchers, whose work was commissioned by GE Healthcare, The Cleveland Clinic and Ochsner Health System, suggest that in a land where a majority of people are overweight or obese, people
tend to compare themselves favorably with their more overweight
neighbors. Another factor encouraging delusionary opinions of one's health is a general ignorance of basic health numbers – blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose level and
other measures. HealthDay reports that on 24 percent knew their body-mass index; 29 percent
knew their blood glucose level; 33 percent knew their daily caloric
intake; and only 36 percent knew their current cholesterol levels.