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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Self-rated health and a healthy lifestyle are the most important predictors of survival in elderly women | | Author(s) | Jessica Ford, Melanie Spallek, Annette Dobson |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 37, no 2, March 2008 |
| Pages | pp 194-200 |
| Source | http://www.ageing.oupjournals.org |
| Keywords | Older women ; Health [elderly] ; Good Health ; Death ; Correlation ; Longitudinal surveys ; Australia. |
| Annotation | The hypothesis that morbidity and health-related behavioural factors are stronger than social factors as predictors of death in older women, was tested. The authors used data from 12422 participants aged 70-75 in 1996 from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Proportional hazards models of survival up to 31 October 2005 were fitted separately for the whole cohort and those women who were initially "in good health". Among the whole cohort, 18.7% died during the follow-up period. The strongest predictor of death was "poor" or "fair" self-rated health (with 52.5% and 28%, respectively, of women in the categories dying). Among the women in "good health" at baseline, 11.5% died; current cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, and age were statistically significant predictors of death. Among older women, current health and health-related behaviours are stronger predictors than social factors of relatively early mortality. Adopting a healthier lifestyle, by doing more exercise and not smoking, is beneficial even in old age. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080411208 A |
| Classmark | BD: CC: CD: CW: 49: 3J: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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