Vadu Rural Health Program, KEM Hospital Research Centre, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
Glob Health Action. 2010 Sep 27;3. doi: 10.3402/gha.v3i0.2128.
India's older population is projected to increase up to 96 million by 2011 with older people accounting for 18% of its population by 2051. The Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health aims to improve empirical understanding of health and well-being of older adults in developing countries.
To examine age and socio-economic changes on a range of key domains in self-reported health and well-being amongst older adults.
A cross-sectional survey of 5,430 adults aged 50 and over using a shortened version of the SAGE questionnaire to assess self-reported assessments (scales of 1-5) of performance, function, disability, quality of life and well-being. Self-reported responses were calibrated using anchoring vignettes in eight key domains of mobility, self-care, pain, cognition, interpersonal relationships, sleep/energy, affect, and vision. WHO Disability Assessment Schedule Index and WHO health scores were calculated to examine for associations with socio-demographic variables.
Disability in all domains increased with increasing age and decreasing levels of education. Females and the oldest old without a living spouse reported poorer health status and greater disability across all domains. Performance and functionality self-reports were similar across all SES quintiles. Self-reports on quality of life were not significantly influenced by socio-demographic variables.
The study provides standardised and comparable self-rated health data using anchoring vignettes in an older population. Though expectations of good health, function and performance decrease with age, self-reports of disability severity significantly increased with age, more so if female, if uneducated and living without a spouse. However, the presence or absence of spouse did not significantly alter quality of life self-reports, suggesting a possible protective effect provided by traditional joint family structures in India, where older people are social if not financial assets for their children.
预计到 2011 年，印度的老年人口将增加到 9600 万，到 2051 年，老年人将占其人口的 18%。全球老龄化和成人健康研究旨在增进对发展中国家老年人健康和福祉的实证理解。
研究年龄和社会经济变化对老年人自我报告的健康和福祉的一系列关键领域的影响。
对 5430 名 50 岁及以上的成年人进行横断面调查，使用 SAGE 问卷的简化版评估自我报告的评估（1-5 分制）在身体机能、功能、残疾、生活质量和幸福感方面的表现。自我报告的反应使用 8 个关键领域的定位情景（移动、自理、疼痛、认知、人际关系、睡眠/能量、情感和视力）进行校准。使用世界卫生组织残疾评估表指数和世界卫生组织健康评分来检查与社会人口学变量的关联。
所有领域的残疾都随年龄的增长和受教育程度的降低而增加。女性和没有生活伴侣的最年长老人在所有领域的健康状况和残疾程度都较差。所有社会经济五分位数的身体机能和功能自我报告都相似。生活质量的自我报告不受社会人口学变量的显著影响。
该研究在老年人群中使用定位情景提供了标准化和可比的自我评估健康数据。尽管随着年龄的增长，对健康、功能和表现的期望会降低，但随着年龄的增长，自我报告的残疾严重程度显著增加，如果是女性、未受教育且没有伴侣的话更是如此。然而，配偶的存在与否并没有显著改变生活质量的自我报告，这表明印度传统的联合家庭结构可能提供了一种保护效应，老年人是子女的社会资产，如果不是经济资产的话。
