Self-rated health and its association with mortality in older adults in China, India and Latin America—a 10/66 Dementia Research Group study

Abstract

Backgroundempirical evidence from high-income countries suggests that self-rated health (SRH) is useful as a brief and simple outcome measure in public health research. However, in many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) there is a lack of evaluation and the cross-cultural validity of SRH remains largely untested. This study aims to explore the prevalence of SRH and its association with mortality in older adults in LMIC in order to cross-culturally validate the construct of SRH.Methodspopulation-based cohort studies including 16,940 persons aged ≥65 years in China, India, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico and Puerto Rico in 2003. SRH was assessed by asking ‘how do you rate your overall health in the past 30 days’ with responses ranging from excellent to poor. Covariates included socio-demographic characteristics, use of health services and health factors. Mortality was ascertained through a screening of all respondents until 2007.Resultsthe prevalence of good SRH was higher in urban compared to rural sites, except in China. Men reported higher SRH than women, and depression had the largest negative impact on SRH in all sites. Without adjustment, those with poor SRH showed a 142% increase risk of dying within 4 years compared to those with moderate SRH. After adjusting for all covariates, those with poor SRH still showed a 43% increased risk.Conclusionour findings support the use of SRH as a simple measure in survey settings to identify vulnerable groups and evaluate health interventions in resource-scares settings.

Psychosocial resources related to survival among non-robust community-dwelling older people: an 18-year follow-up study

“…In consistence with our results, several earlier studies have shown poor SRH being associated with higher mortality risk among general population of older adults [12][13][14][15]. In our study, also having a good SRH, compared to poor SRH, was associated with a 10-year survival but not with 18-year survival among frail older adults.…”

The relationship between health self-perception, food consumption and nutritional status among Portuguese older adults

“…Almost half of the older adults presented a positive HSP, but women, like in other studies showed a lower HSP compared to men (39,48). Most of the older adults also saw themselves to be better than others of the same age.…”

Self-rated health and medicine beliefs among older hospital outpatients in Hong Kong

“…However, it did provide the opportunity to study the association between SRH and beliefs about medicine. In addition, as SRH and beliefs about medicine are culturally dependent, this single‐centre study needs to be extended to multiple centres to investigate the relation between SRH and beliefs about medicine among different ethnic populations.…”