Self-rated health and associated factors among the oldest-old: results from a cross-sectional study in Sweden

Abstract

Background: Very few population-based studies have investigated self-rated health and related factors in the increasing age group 85 years or older. The aim of this study was to examine self-rated health and its association with living conditions, lifestyle factors, physical and mental health problems and functional ability among the oldest-old in the general population in Sweden. Methods: The study is cross-sectional and based on 1360 persons, 85 years of age or older, who answered a survey questionnaire sent to a random population sample in 2012 (participation rate 47%). Multivariate logistic regression was used as the statistical method. Results: The prevalence of good self-rated health was 39% in men and 30% in women. Physical inactivity, impaired physical mobility, pain, anxiety/depression and longstanding illness were independently associated with poorer than good self-rated health, while factors such as gender, age, educational level, cash margin, living alone, social support, smoking, alcohol use, obesity, accidents and impaired vision/hearing were not. Conclusions: While a considerable part of the oldest-old assess their health as good, not being physically active and having common health problems such as pain and depression as well as impaired physical mobility are associated with poorer than good self-rated health. This should be considered when planning how to improve and maintain health in the growing population of persons 85 years and older.

Chronic Conditions, Persistent Pain, and Psychological Distress Among the Rural Older Adults: A Path Analysis in Shandong, China

“…Thus, self-rated health might be a mediator in the relationship between chronic conditions and PD in this study. Also, persistent pain was another risk factor related to poor self-rated health according to previous studies (26,27,(32)(33)(34). As such, self-rated health might be one mediator for persistent pain and PD.…”

“…According to this theory, chronic stress such as chronic conditions and persistent pain could be regarded as stressors (24). They were also found to be related to decreased sleep quality and worse self-rated health (25)(26)(27)(28). It is considerable that sleep quality and self-rated health might play mediating roles in the associations between stressors and PD (22).…”

Associação entre autoavaliação de saúde e tipos de atividades de vida diária em idosos

“…Em relação às condições de saúde analisadas, tanto o número de morbidades como as internações no último ano tiveram associação com a autopercepção negativa da saúde de forma independente. Essas evidências já foram bem exploradas na literatura 1,3,5,6,13,14 e podem ser justificadas pelo fato de que em idosos as multimorbidades e a ocorrência de internações são fatores que afetam a dimensão biológica da saúde. Quanto maior o número de doenças, maior a demanda de cuidados e de prestação de serviços, o que, por consequência, pode implicar pior percepção de saúde no idoso.…”

“…Alguns estudos mostraram que a incapacidade funcional está associada à pior autoavaliação do estado de saúde dos idosos [13][14][15] . Em estudo de seguimento, a pior percepção de saúde foi um fator preditor independente para o declínio nas AIVDs 14 .…”

“…Diante disso, embora existam evidências de que a incapacidade funcional está associada à autopercepção de saúde ruim [13][14][15] , analisar o tipo de atividade diária que tem maior associação pode contribuir para o melhor acompanhamento e intervenções precoces nos idosos. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi estimar a prevalência de autoavaliação de saúde negativa conforme as condições sociodemográficas, de saúde e tipos de ABVDs e AIVDs de idosos que vivem na comunidade.…”