The utility of self-perceived health ratings in screening volunteers for mental health research.

We report on the utility of online self-perceived medical and mental health ratings (SPH) when screening healthy volunteers for mental health research. These one-item ratings were correlated with eligibility decisions and longer clinical surveys. We found correlations between SPH ratings and blinded clinician ratings of volunteer medical and mental health after an in-person evaluation, although additional analysis revealed poor reliability between clinician and volunteer ratings. SPH ratings are a useful addition to screening methods for research studies.