Perceived health status and mortality among older men and women

Abstract

This article separately examines the relationship of perceived health status and mortality for the 1,599 men and 2,904 women self-respondents in the Longitudinal Study on Aging. Using hierarchical logistic regression, the zero-order relationships are decomposed by the serial introduction of demographic, socioeconomic, health status, and psychosocial factors. For men, only those in poor health are significantly more likely to die than those in excellent health (adjusted odds ratio = 1.754), all other things being equal. For women, those in fair or poor health are more likely to die than those in excellent health (adjusted odds ratios = 1.870 and 2.181, respectively), all other things being equal.