School of Nursing, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Science, Taiwan.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2012 May-Jun;54(3):e334-41. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2011.10.009. Epub 2011 Nov 8.
Self-rated health (SRH) is considered a relevant and important predictor for major health outcomes in the older population. SRH status may interact with certain factors and change over a person's lifetime. In this study, we sought to characterize profiles of older people over time by constructing prototypical trajectories of the variable of interest, namely SRH. The underlying assumption was that the collection of observed individual trajectories could be efficiently summarized by a smaller set of latent clusters of those trajectories. Data was obtained from the Longitudinal Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan, which was conducted between 1989 and 2003 and included five separate waves of survey. A total of 3937 subjects aged 60 or older (2251 males and 1686 females) comprised the major analytic cohort. Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) was used to identify developmental classes of trajectory patterns in SRH. The results showed that during a 14-year period, SRH developed five major longitudinal trajectories. Less than one-third of the older population was able to maintain their formerly good or moderate health status; when change occurred, decline was more likely than improvement. In addition, LCGA indicated that many demographic characteristics, as well as physical and psychological propensities, were associated with poor SRH in the older population. Specifically, these factors played a role in involving baseline SRH level and its trend toward deterioration in later life. Health care professionals must understand the various longitudinal patterns and factors affecting SRH trajectories if they are to develop programs aimed at maintaining the older population's health and well-being.
自评健康 (SRH) 被认为是老年人群体中重要的健康结果的相关预测因素。SRH 状况可能与某些因素相互作用，并随着个体生命的变化而变化。在这项研究中，我们试图通过构建感兴趣变量的典型轨迹来描述随时间变化的老年人的特征。我们的基本假设是，通过观察到的个体轨迹的集合，可以通过轨迹的更小的潜在聚类来有效地概括。本研究的数据来自于台湾老年人健康与生活状况的纵向调查，该调查于 1989 年至 2003 年进行，共包括五个独立的调查波次。共有 3937 名年龄在 60 岁或以上的受试者（2251 名男性和 1686 名女性）构成了主要的分析队列。潜在类别增长分析 (LCGA) 用于识别 SRH 轨迹模式的发展类别。结果表明，在 14 年的时间里，SRH 呈现出五种主要的纵向轨迹。不到三分之一的老年人口能够保持其以前良好或中等的健康状况；当发生变化时，下降的可能性大于改善。此外，LCGA 表明，许多人口统计学特征，以及身体和心理倾向，与老年人群的不良 SRH 有关。具体来说，这些因素在涉及基线 SRH 水平及其在以后生活中恶化的趋势方面发挥了作用。如果医疗保健专业人员要制定旨在维护老年人口健康和福祉的计划，就必须了解影响 SRH 轨迹的各种纵向模式和因素。
