Orpana Heather M, Ross Nancy, Feeny David, McFarland Bentson, Bernier Julie, Kaplan Mark
Health Information and Research Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Health Rep. 2009 Mar;20(1):29-35.
Taking account of the impacts of institutionalization and death, this study describes the normative trajectories of health-related quality of life (HRQL) in Canada as individuals age from mid-to late life.
A nationally representative sample of 7,915 community-dwelling adults aged 40 and older in 1994/1995 was studied using 10 years of data from the longitudinal National Population Health Survey. Growth curve models of HRQL over age were fitted to describe the evolution of HRQL. Successive models were tested, first including only those living in a household throughout the entire period, then adding those who moved to an institution, and finally, including those who had died.
HRQL remained generally stable until approximately age 70, when it began to decline. Excluding individuals when they were institutionalized, or ignoring the impact of death resulted in overly optimistic trajectories of HRQL in later years.
These results demonstrate the importance of following individuals into institutions and accounting for death in the production of realistic health estimates in aging populations.
考虑到机构收容和死亡的影响，本研究描述了加拿大个体从中年到老年时与健康相关的生活质量（HRQL）的规范轨迹。
利用纵向全国人口健康调查的10年数据，对1994/1995年全国代表性样本中7915名40岁及以上的社区居住成年人进行了研究。拟合了HRQL随年龄变化的增长曲线模型，以描述HRQL的演变。测试了连续的模型，首先仅包括在整个时期都居住在家庭中的人，然后加入那些搬到机构中的人，最后包括那些已经死亡的人。
HRQL通常在大约70岁之前保持稳定，之后开始下降。将机构收容时的个体排除在外，或忽略死亡的影响，会导致晚年HRQL轨迹过于乐观。
这些结果表明，在对老年人群进行实际健康评估时，跟踪个体进入机构并考虑死亡情况非常重要。
