Top

International Journal of Public Health

Published in:

01-08-2014 | Original Article

Specific versus general self-reported health indicators predicting mortality among older adults in Europe: disparities by gender employing SHARE longitudinal data

Author: Georgia Verropoulou

Published in: International Journal of Public Health | Issue 4/2014

Abstract

Objectives

The study aims at assessing the relative importance of specific versus general self-reported indicators of health and disability in predicting mortality among older adults and at exploring the potential value of the global activity limitation indicator (GALI), a recently validated general measure of activity restrictions, as predictor of death.

Methods

Longitudinal data from two waves (2004 and 2006–2007) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe were employed. The sample comprises 17,941 persons aged 50+ at baseline, representing 11 countries. Associations were estimated by sex using Cox’s proportional hazards regression models.

Results

Most specific and general indicators of health and disability are strong and independent predictors. There are disparities by sex; among general measures, controlling for all indicators under consideration, self-rated health (SRH) only remains significantly associated with mortality among males and GALI among females.

Conclusions

A combination of specific and general measures is more efficient in predicting mortality than either of these alone. SRH and GALI seem to share some traits, adding health and disability dimensions over specific measures, representing though different aspects by gender.

Blomgren J, Martikainen P, Grundy E, Koskinen S (2012) Marital history 1971–1991 and mortality 1991–2004 in England & Wales and Finland. J Epidemiol Community Health 66:30–36PubMedCrossRef

Börsch-Supan A, Hank K, Jürges H (2005) A new comprehensive and international view on ageing: introducing the “Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe”. Eur J Ageing 2(4):245–253CrossRef

Cho C, Alessi C, Cho M, Aronow H, Stuck A, Rubenstein L, Beck J (1998) The association between chronic illness and functional change among participants in a comprehensive geriatric assessment program. J Am Geriatr Soc 46(6):677–682PubMed

Deeg DJH, Bath PA (2003) Self-rated health, gender, and mortality in older persons: introduction to a special section. Gerontologist 43(3):369–371PubMedCrossRef

DeSalvo KB, Bloser N, Reynolds K, He J, Munter P (2005) Mortality prediction with a single general self-rated question: a meta analysis. J Gen Intern Med 21(3):267–275PubMedCrossRef

Dey DK, Rothenberg E, Sundh V, Bosaeus I, Steen B (2001) Body mass index, weight change and mortality in the elderly, A 15 y longitudinal population study of 70 y olds. Eur J Clin Nutr 55:482–492PubMedCrossRef

Dunlop DD, Manheim LM, Sohn MW, Liu X, Chang RW (2002) Incidence of functional limitation in older adults: the impact of gender, race and chronic conditions. Arch Physical Med Rehabil 83(7):964–971CrossRef

Flegal KM, Graubard BI, Williamson DF, Gail MH (2005) Excess deaths associated with underweight, overweight and obesity. JAMA 293:1861–1867PubMedCrossRef

Fonda S, Herzog A (2004) Documentation of physical functioning measured in the health and retirement study and the asset and health dynamics among the oldest old study. HRS/AHEAD documentation report

French DJ, Jang S-N, Tait RJ, Anstey KJ (2013) Cross-national gender differences in the socioeconomic factors associated with smoking in Australia, the United States of America and South Korea. Int J Public Health 58:345–353PubMedCrossRef

Fukuda Y, Nakamura K, Takano T (2005) Accumulation of health risk behaviours is associated with lower socioeconomic status and women’s urban residence: a multilevel analysis in Japan. BMC Public Health 5:53. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-5-53 PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef

Gilmour H, Park J (2006) Dependency, chronic conditions and pain in seniors. Health Rep 16(supplement):21–31

Idler EL, Benyamini Y (1997) Self-rated health and mortality: a review of twenty-seven community studies. J Health Soc Behav 38:21–37PubMedCrossRef

Idler EL, Kasl SV (1991) Health perceptions and survival: do global evaluations of health status really predict mortality? J Gerontol 46(2):S55–S65PubMedCrossRef

Jagger C, Gillies C, Cambois E, Van Oyen H, Nusselder W, Robine J-M, The EHLEIS Team (2010) The global activity limitation index measured function and disability similarly across European countries. J Clin Epidemiol 63:892–899PubMedCrossRef

Jensen G, Silver H, Roy M, Callahan E, Still C, Dupont W (2006) Obesity is a risk factor for reporting homebound status among community-dwelling older persons. Obesity 14(3):509–517PubMedCrossRef

Katz S (1983) Assessing self maintenance: activities of daily living, mobility and instrumental activities of daily living. J Am Geriatr Soc 31(12):721–726PubMed

Katz S, Downs TD, Cash HR, Grotz RC (1970) Progress in development of the index of ADL. Gerontologist 10:20–30PubMedCrossRef

Kivinen P, Halonen P, Evonen M, Nissinen A (1998) Self-rated health, physician-rated health and associated factors among elderly men: the Finnish cohorts of the seven countries study. Age Ageing 27(1):41–47PubMedCrossRef

Korten AE, Jorm AF, Jiao Z, Letenneur L, Jacomb PA, Henderson AS, Christensen H, Rodgers B (1999) Health, cognitive, and psychosocial factors as predictors of mortality in an elderly community sample. J Epidemiol Community Health 53:83–88PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef

Lawton MP, Brody EM (1969) Assessment of older people: self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. Gerontologist 9(3):179–186PubMedCrossRef

Mehta KM, Yaffe K, Langa KM, Sands L, Whooley MA, Covinsky KE (2003) Additive effects of cognitive function and depressive symptoms on mortality in elderly community-living adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 58(5):M461–M467PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef

Merrill SS, Seeman TE, Kasl SV, Berkman LF (1997) Gender differences in the comparison of self-reported disability and performance measures. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 52A(1):M19–M26CrossRef

O’Reilly D, Rosato M (2010) Dissonances in self-reported health and mortality across denominational groups in Northern Ireland. Soc Sci Med 71(5):1011–1017PubMedCrossRef

Orpana HM, Berthelot J-M, Kaplan MS, Feeny DH, McFarland B, Ross NA (2009) BMI and mortality: results from a national longitudinal study of Canadian adults. Obesity 18:214–218PubMedCrossRef

Prince MJ, Reischies F, Beekam ATF, Fuhrer R, Jonker C, Kivela SL, Lawlor BA, Lobo A, Magnusson H, Fichter M, Van Oyen H, Roelands M, Skoog I, Turrina C, Copeland JRM (1999) Development of the EURO-D scale—a European Union initiative to compare symptoms of depression in 14 European centres. Br J Psychiatry 174:330–338PubMedCrossRef

Puts MTE, Lips P, Deeg DJH (2005) Sex differences in the risk of frailty for mortality independent of disability and chronic diseases. JAGS 53:40–47CrossRef

Reynolds SL, Silverstein M (2003) Observing the onset of disability in older adults. Soc Sci Med 57(10):1875–1889PubMedCrossRef

Robine J-M, Jagger C (2003) Creating a coherent set of indicators to monitor health across Europe. the Euro-REVES2 project. Eur J Pub Health 13(3 supplement):6–14CrossRef

Rolland Y, Lauwers-Cances V, Cesari M, Vellas B, Pahor M, Grandjean H (2006) Physical performance measures as predictors of mortality in a cohort of community-dwelling older French women. Eur J Epidemiol 21:113–122PubMedCrossRef

Schröder M (2008) Chapter 8.4 Attrition. In: Börsch-Supan A, Brugiavini A, Jürges H, Kapteyn, A., Mackenbach J, Siegrist J, Weber G, (eds) First results from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in europe (2004–2007): starting the longitudinal dimension, Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Ageing (MEA), Mannheim

Schulz Α, Doblhammer G (2011) Longitudinal Research with the Second Wave of SHARE: representativeness of the longitudinal sample and the mortality follow-up. Rostock center discussion paper 28 rostock center for the study of demographic change

SHARE (2011) Release Guide 2.5.0. Waves 1 & 2. Manheim Research Institute for the Economics of Ageing

SHARE documentation online (2013) Sample. http://www.share-project.org/. Accessed 10 July 2013

Simoes EJ, Mariotti S, Rossi A, Heim A, Lobello F, Mokdad AH, Scafato E (2012) The Italian health surveillance (SiVeAS) prioritization approach to reduce chronic disease risk factors. Int J Public Health 57:719–733PubMedCrossRef

Simons LA, Simons J, McCallum J, Friedlander Y (2005) Impact of smoking, diabetes and hypertension on survival time in the elderly: the Dubbo study. MJA 182(5):219–222PubMed

Van Oyen H, van der Heyden J, Perenboom R, Jagger C (2006) Monitoring population disability: evaluation of a new global activity limitation indicator (GALI). Soz PraventivMed 51:153–161PubMedCrossRef

Verropoulou G (2009) Key elements composing self-rated health in older adults: a comparative study of 11 European countries. Eur J Ageing 6(3):213–226CrossRef

Verropoulou G (2012) Determinants of change in self-rated health among older adults in Europe: a longitudinal perspective based on SHARE data. Eur J Ageing 9(4):305–318CrossRef

Vuorisalmi M, Pietilä I, Pohjolainen P (2008) Comparison of self-rated health in older people of St. Petersburg, Russia, and Tampere, Finland: how sensitive is SRH to cross-cultural factors? Eur J Ageing 5:327–334CrossRef

Woo J, Ho SC, Yu LM, Lau J, Yuen YK (1998) Impact of chronic diseases on functional limitations in elderly Chinese aged 70 years and over: a cross-sectional and longitudinal survey. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 53(2):M102–M106PubMedCrossRef

Title: Specific versus general self-reported health indicators predicting mortality among older adults in Europe: disparities by gender employing SHARE longitudinal data
Author: Georgia Verropoulou
Publication date: 01-08-2014
Publisher: Springer Basel
Published in: International Journal of Public Health / Issue 4/2014
Print ISSN: 1661-8556
Electronic ISSN: 1661-8564
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0563-9

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Specific versus general self-reported health indicators predicting mortality among older adults in Europe: disparities by gender employing SHARE longitudinal data

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 4/2014

Smokeless tobacco use in pregnancy: an integrative review of the literature

Does the pattern of educational inequalities in smoking in Western Europe depend on the choice of survey?

The effect of workplace smoking bans on heart rate variability and pulse wave velocity of non-smoking hospitality workers

The impact of conditional cash transfers on child health in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review

Mechanistic data support protecting non-smokers from the lethal effects of second-hand smoke

Mortality analysis by neighbourhood in a city with high levels of industrial air pollution