Huisman Martijn, Kunst Anton, Deeg Dorly, Grigoletto Francesco, Nusselder Wilma, Mackenbach Johan
Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center, University Medical Center Rotterdam, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
J Clin Epidemiol. 2005 Oct;58(10):1058-65. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2004.12.011.
Information on socioeconomic inequalities in incidence of and recovery from disability is still scarce, as is information on socioeconomic inequalities in performance-based disability as compared to self-reported disability. This study aimed to estimate educational inequalities in the prevalence, incidence, and recovery of self-reported and performance-based disability in two European populations.
We analyzed data from two longitudinal studies on aging. At each wave, participants were asked to what degree they experienced difficulty with several functional tasks, and interviewers rated their performance on several tasks. Educational inequalities in both outcomes were expressed in terms of prevalence, incidence, and recovery ratios.
Educational inequalities in both prevalence and incidence of disability were observed. No large educational inequalities in recovery from disability could be demonstrated. Compared to inequalities in self-reports of disability, inequalities in performance-based disability were equally large in the Dutch study, but smaller in the Italian study.
Inequalities in performance-based measures of disability stress the importance of the association of socioeconomic position with disability among older populations. Our results suggest that higher education serves to postpone or avoid disability, but provides less benefit when disability is already present.
关于残疾发生率及康复方面社会经济不平等的信息仍然匮乏，与自我报告的残疾相比，基于表现的残疾方面社会经济不平等的信息同样稀少。本研究旨在估计两个欧洲人群中自我报告的残疾和基于表现的残疾在患病率、发病率及康复方面的教育不平等情况。
我们分析了两项关于老龄化的纵向研究数据。在每次随访时，询问参与者在几项功能任务上的困难程度，同时访员对他们在几项任务上的表现进行评分。两种结果的教育不平等情况均用患病率、发病率及康复率来表示。
观察到残疾患病率和发病率方面的教育不平等。未发现残疾康复方面存在显著的教育不平等。与残疾自我报告方面的不平等相比，基于表现的残疾不平等在荷兰研究中程度相当，但在意大利研究中较小。
基于表现的残疾测量方面的不平等凸显了社会经济地位与老年人群残疾之间关联的重要性。我们的结果表明，高等教育有助于推迟或避免残疾，但在残疾已经出现时益处较小。
