Specific versus general self-reported health indicators predicting mortality among older adults in Europe: disparities by gender employing SHARE longitudinal data.

OBJECTIVES

The study aims at assessing the relative importance of specific versus general self-reported indicators of health and disability in predicting mortality among older adults and at exploring the potential value of the global activity limitation indicator (GALI), a recently validated general measure of activity restrictions, as predictor of death.

METHODS

Longitudinal data from two waves (2004 and 2006-2007) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe were employed. The sample comprises 17,941 persons aged 50+ at baseline, representing 11 countries. Associations were estimated by sex using Cox's proportional hazards regression models.

RESULTS

Most specific and general indicators of health and disability are strong and independent predictors. There are disparities by sex; among general measures, controlling for all indicators under consideration, self-rated health (SRH) only remains significantly associated with mortality among males and GALI among females.

CONCLUSIONS

A combination of specific and general measures is more efficient in predicting mortality than either of these alone. SRH and GALI seem to share some traits, adding health and disability dimensions over specific measures, representing though different aspects by gender.