Self-reported health: potential life underwriting tool?

Any approach that adds speed and efficiency to the underwriting process provides a competitive edge in today's fast changing financial services industry. The acquisition of data for medical underwriting has always been a challenge; with the traditional attending physician statement process adding time, real costs, and opportunity costs to manufacturing life products. Is there any potential for the use of self-reported medical and health history data in medical underwriting assessment? This article reviews published research on the uses and the validity of self-reported health data as it has been applied in current medical and public health practices. Whether self-reported medical history is valid data that can be applied in the underwriting context remains an open question.