[Analysis of factors influencing self-rated health among older persons: synthesis of the biomedical literature]

Abstract

Self-rated health is a frequently used measure, notably in the field of gerontology. Different authors have studied factors that can influence self-rated health among older persons and, according to studies, the factors taken into account and their influence vary. This article aims at synthesising the biomedical literature, published since 1993, on factors that influence self-rated health of non-institutionalised older persons aged 65 years and over, with a focus on cross-sectional quantitative studies. Of the 1801 articles that were identified by our search strategy in the Medline database, 22 were retained. The proportion of older persons assessing their health positively ranged, depending on the studies, from 48.4% to 78.0%. Fifteen studies out of 22 investigated what was rather associated with an unfavourable self-rated health. Two studies took into account only one kind of independent variables. In more than half of the studies, 1 to several variables belonging to at least 3 kinds of independent variables were associated with self-rated health in multivariable analysis. The associations between these different kinds of independent variables considered (sociodemographic characteristics - morbidity - functional status - mental health - social support - other variables) and self-rated health are here presented and synthesized. This work shows that the factors that influence self-rated health among older people, factors measured differently according to authors, are varied and belong to different domains. These domains include morbidity, functional status, as well as sociodemographic characteristics, mental health, certain aspects of social support and other kinds of factors.

Keywords: aged; aged 80 and over; ageing; self-assessed health; self-rated health.