In conjunction with the Cornell medical index assessing, the stress scale correlated with visits to medical dispensaries, and the H&R stress scale's scores also correlated independently with individuals dropping out of stressful underwater demolitions training due to medical problems.

There was a +0.118 correlation between stress scale scores and illness, which was sufficient to support the hypothesis of a link between life events and illness. Over the next six months, detailed records were kept of the sailors' health. The scale was given to 2,500 US sailors and they were asked to rate scores of 'life events' over the previous six months. Rahe carried out a study in 1970 testing the validity of the stress scale as a predictor of illness. Subsequent validation has supported the links between stress and illness. Their results were published as the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS), known more commonly as the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale. A positive correlation of 0.118 was found between their life events and their illnesses. Patients were asked to tally a list of 43 life events based on a relative score. In 1967, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe examined the medical records of over 5,000 medical patients as a way to determine whether stressful events might cause illnesses. While there is good evidence that chronic stress can lead to ill health, there is not much evidence to support the ranking of stressful life events in this manner. The American Institute of Stress for instance, regards a score of 300 or more as an '80% chance of health breakdown within the next 2 years'. The test works via a point accumulation score which then gives an assessment of risk. The Holmes and Rahe stress scale ( / r eɪ/) is a list of 43 stressful life events that can contribute to illness.

The Nose by Thomas H. Holmes