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. 2020 Aug;32(8):1591-1594.
doi: 10.1007/s40520-020-01507-1. Epub 2020 Mar 4.

Disease or function? What matters most for self-rated health in older people depends on age

Viviane S Straatmann  1 , Davide L Vetrano  1   2   3 , Laura Fratiglioni  1   4 , Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga  5
Affiliations

Disease or function? What matters most for self-rated health in older people depends on age

Viviane S Straatmann et al. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Self-rated health (SRH) holistically captures older adults' health status from the perspective of the individual.

Aims: To explore the accuracy of five objective health indicators related to diseases, physical function, cognition and disability in discriminating SRH among the youngest and oldest old.

Methods: We used baseline data from 2196 participants of the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K), Sweden (years 2001-2004). Area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC) were obtained from logistic regressions adjusted by sex, age and education.

Results: Among the youngest old, having ≥ 4 chronic diseases showed the highest discriminatory capacity of poor versus good SRH (AUROC: 0.714). Among the oldest old, a walking speed < 1.0 m/s showed the highest discriminatory capacity of poor versus good SRH (AUROC: 0.683), followed by ≥ 1 limitations in IADL (AUROC: 0.664).

Conclusion: What matters most for SRH in older people depends on age, with walking speed playing a major role among the oldest old.

Keywords: Chronic diseases; Disability; Functioning; Older adults; Self-rated health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Discriminatory capacity of the five objective health indicators concerning poor versus good SRH, stratified by age group. AUROC area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, CD chronic diseases, WS walking speed (m/s), MMSE Mini-Mental State Examination, ADL basic activities of daily living, IADL instrumental activities of daily living. All estimates derived from logistic regressions adjusted by sex, age and education
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