Predictors of mortality in old age : contribution of self-rated health, physical functions, life satisfaction and social support on survival among older people

Length of life is perhaps the best single indicator of the health of a population. The purpose of the present series of studies was to explore the potential predictors of mortality in older people with special emphasis on self-rated health, physical functions, life satisfaction and perceived social support.The four studies used prospective data drawn from 1) the Evergreen study, where mortality was followed for 10 years in an entire cohort of the 75- and 80-year-old (N=650) residents of the city of Jyväskylä, Finland, 2) the Functional capacity of men born in 1906-10, 1926-30 and 1946-50 research project from which two oldest age cohorts, 257 residents of the city of Jyväskylä, Finland aged…

Factors affecting the increased risk of physical inactivity among older people with depressive symptoms.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between depressive symptoms and physical inactivity, and whether motives for and barriers to exercise explain the potential association between depressive symptoms and physical inactivity in older people. The design of the study was cross-sectional. The study population comprised 645 people born between 1922 and 1928 who were residents in a city-center area of Jyväskylä in central Finland. Depressive symptoms were assessed using Center for the Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, physical activity using Grimby's (1986) validated scale, and motives for and barriers to exercise using a questionnaire and mobility limitation with a…

Experienced health in older women with rheumatoid arthritis.

ABSTRACT This study explored how older women with chronic illness and disability experience their own health. Data were collected in in-depth interviews with ten older women with rheumatoid arthritis. Data analysis and interpretation was carried out within a phenomenological-hermeneutic frame of understanding, which revealed five major themes: health as coping with everyday life, health as freedom, health as absence of inconvenience, health as togetherness and health as mental well-being. For older people with chronic illness and disability, good health found expression in general well-being. It was perceived as a state of equilibrium that the respondents sought to maintain through their ow…

The current state and developments in higher education in gerontology in the Nordic countries

The growing size of the older population challenges not only researchers but also higher education in gerontology. On the basis of an online survey the authors describe the situation of Nordic higher education in gerontology in 2008 and 2009 and also give some good examples of Nordic- and European-level collaboration. The survey results showed that gerontological education was given in every Nordic country, in 31 universities and 60 other higher education institutions. Although separate aging-related courses and modules were relatively numerous, programs for majors were relatively few. Networking in the Nordic region offers a good example on how to further develop higher education in geront…

Ikääntyneen kroonisesti sairaan ihmisen kokemuksellinen terveys

Does Social Activity Decrease Risk for Institutionalization and Mortality in Older People?

Objectives. Social inactivity predicts adverse health events, but less is known about how different dimensions of social activity are related to health. The aim of this study was to investigate collective (e.g., cultural and organizational activities) and productive (e.g., helping others) social activity as predictors of risk for mortality and institutionalization in old age. Method. A total of 1,181 community-living people aged 65–84 years at baseline were interviewed face to face as part of the Evergreen project, in Jyvaskyla, Finland in 1988. Time to institutionalization and mortality were analyzed in separate models for proportional hazard regression on mortality and competing risks ana…

Self-rated health and mortality: Could clinical and performance-based measures of health and functioning explain the association?

It is well established that self-rated health (SRH) predicts mortality even when other indicators of health status are taken into account. It has been suggested that SRH measures a wide array of mortality-related physiological and pathological characteristics not captured by the covariates included in the analyses. Our aim was to test this hypothesis by examining the predictive value of SRH on mortality controlling for different measurements of body structure, performance-based functioning and diagnosed diseases with a population-based, prospective study over an 18-year follow-up. Subjects consisted of 257 male residents of the city of Jyväskylä, central Finland, aged 51-55 and 71-75 years.…

Perceived constraints on physical exercise among obese and non-obese older people.

Abstract Objective To examine what older obese people consider as constraints on their physical exercise and to determine whether these constraints can explain the differences in physical activity. Methods Six hundred nineteen community-living people aged 75–81 years living in Jyvaskyla, Central Finland, in 2003 were included in these cross-sectional analyses. Weight and height were measured at the research center, and physical activity and perceived constraints on physical exercise were assessed using validated questionnaires. Participants were categorized as non-obese ( n  =   436), moderately obese ( n  =   127) or severely obese ( n  =   56). Results The risk of physical inactivity was …

Satisfaction With Present Life Predicts Survival in Octogenarians

We examined the effect of life satisfaction on survival over 10 years among 80-year-old and older same-sex twins of whom 320 individuals responded to the Life Satisfaction Index Z questionnaire in connection with the OCTO-Twin study. We treated participants as individuals in semiparametric Cox regression mixed-effects models (frailty) by adjusting the similarity of mortality risk within twin pairs by modeling it as a random variable. An exploratory factor analysis yielded three factors: Zest and Mood represented satisfaction with present life and Congruence represented satisfaction with past life. Those in the lowest quartile of factors of satisfaction with present life had an almost twofol…

Perceived social support and mortality in older people.

Objectives This study examines the effect of perceived social support on all-cause mortality at a 10-year follow-up as well as the plausible mediating factors in this association. Methods We measured perceived social support in 206 Finnish men and women aged 80 years old by using the Social Provision Scale, which consists of six dimensions: attachment, social integration, opportunity for nurturance, reassurance of worth, reliable alliance, and guidance. Results By using a theoretical framework that divided perceived social support into assistance-related and non-assistance-related support, we found that the risk of death was almost 2.5 times higher in women in the lowest tertile of non-assi…

A cohort study found good respiratory, sensory and motor functions decreased mortality risk in older people

Abstract Background and Objective The main aims of this study were to evaluate the separate and joint effects of respiratory, sensory, and psychomotor function, muscle strength, and mobility in predicting mortality in older men and women, and to find a way to control multicollinearity in a multivariate Cox regression model. Methods Mortality was followed for 10 years (1990–2000) in an entire cohort of 75-year-old residents of the city of Jyvaskyla, Finland (born in 1914; N =388). Cox regression models and principal component estimation were employed to study the association between the covariates and mortality. Results The study indicated that, after adjustment for fatal diseases and cognit…

Social relations in older adults: Secular trends and longitudinal changes over a 16-year follow-up.

Abstract Drawing on population studies in Finland, we investigated secular trends and longitudinal changes in social relations. The cohort comparison data comprised on 974 persons aged 65–69 years from three cohorts born between 1919 and 1939 and interviewed in 1988, 1996 and 2004. Longitudinal analyses were conducted for 635 persons aged 65–74 years over a 16-year follow-up at three measurement points. Social relations were studied on the basis of frequency seeing one's offspring, perceptions of the sufficiency of these contacts, and by asking whom the participants considered as their closest person and how often and in how many tasks they helped someone. The cohort comparisons showed that…

Self-rated health and mortality in older men and women: A time-dependent covariate analysis

Although the relation between self-rated health (SRH) and mortality is widely known, most of the studies have relied in baseline measurements unheeding the dynamics of the phenomenon. Our aim was to analyze how SRH both as a constant and as a time-dependent covariate predicts mortality in older men and women and to compare these different approaches. Subjects consisted of 110 male and 208 female (n = 318) residents in the city of Jyvaskyla, central Finland, aged 75 years at the baseline in 1989. The follow-up data was gathered in 1994 and mortality was followed for 10 years. Results showed that poor SRH was strongly associated with higher mortality risk in women in all models. In men, the a…

Social engagement from childhood to middle age and the effect of childhood socio-economic status on middle age social engagement: results from the National Child Development study

ABSTRACTSocial engagement has powerful effects on wellbeing, but variation in individual engagement throughout the lifecourse is wide. The trajectories may differ by gender and be affected by socio-economic status (SES). However, long-term development of social engagement is little studied and the effect of childhood SES on later-life social engagement remains obscure. We aimed to describe the social engagement development from childhood to middle age by gender and test the effect of childhood SES on middle age social engagement. Data (N=16,440, 51.3% male) are drawn from the on-going National Child Development Study, following British babies born in 1958. Social engagement was measured by …

Do negative life events promote gerotranscendence in the second half of life?

Objectives: Gerotranscendence has been defined as a developmental shift in meta-perspective from a materialistic and pragmatic view to a more cosmic and transcendent view. Although gerotranscendence has been argued to increase with age and life experiences, the results have been mixed and based on cross-sectional studies. We use a longitudinal setting to investigate the role of negative life events, age, and gender on change in one dimension of gerotranscendence, cosmic transcendence. Method: 1569 individuals (ages 58-89) answered a questionnaire on cosmic transcendence in two cycles of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam in 1995-1996 (time 1) and 1998-1999 (time 2). Controlling for educ…