AbstractImpairments of function may be caused by ageing or pathological processes and in some individuals there may be a discrepancy between chronological and biological age. In screened female subjects, health status was defined by number of characteristics: absence of self‐reported medical illnesses, nonsmoking, normal chest radiography, electrocardiography and urine tests, plus subjective perception of good health. These indicators of health status were compared with differences in age‐dependent biological variables. An assessment was also made of the effect that a person's age or subjective health status had on the variance of these variables.Subjective good health was shown to be associated with less age‐dependent biological change. Additionally, plasma triglyceride concentration was found to be more indicative of people's perception of their own health than the other variables. Such observations have relevance to the yield of abnormal results from health screening programs, and suggest that subjects for screening could be selected by their reported health experience and well