Bardage Carola, Pluijm Saskia M F, Pedersen Nancy L, Deeg Dorly J H, Jylhä Marja, Noale Marianna, Blumstein Tzvia, Otero Ángel
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, P.O. Box 281, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Eur J Ageing. 2005 Jun;2(2):149-158. doi: 10.1007/s10433-005-0032-7. Epub 2005 May 14.
Self-rated health (SRH) may have different implications in various social and cultural settings. However, few studies are available concerning SRH among older persons across countries. The aim of this study was to analyse whether there are cross-national differences in the association between status characteristics, several diseases common among older persons, activities of daily living (ADL), and SRH. The study base was the Comparison of Longitudinal European Studies on Aging (CLESA), which includes data from six population-based studies on aging conducted in Finland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The study population comprised 5,629 persons, with participants from all countries except Italy. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between status characteristics, health conditions, ADL and SRH. To examine whether the association among status characteristics, health conditions, ADL and outcome differed across the CLESA countries, interaction terms defined as "variable*country" were considered separately for each variable. Regression analyses revealed that sex, education, lifetime occupation, heart disease and respiratory disease were differently distributed across countries. Among homogeneous factors, marital status (OR=1.21), hypertension (OR=1.41), stroke (OR=1.67), diabetes (OR=2.15), cancer (OR=1.47), musculoskeletal diseases (OR=2.44), and ADL (OR=2.72) turned out to be significantly associated with fair or poor SRH. The results indicate that there are differences in self-ratings of health across countries. These differences cannot be explained entirely by status characteristics, self-reported diseases or functional ability. However, an important finding was that in all countries most of the indicators of medical and functional health were homogeneously associated with SRH.
自评健康状况（SRH）在不同的社会和文化背景下可能具有不同的含义。然而，关于各国老年人自评健康状况的研究却很少。本研究的目的是分析在地位特征、老年人常见的几种疾病、日常生活活动能力（ADL）与自评健康状况之间的关联中是否存在跨国差异。研究基础是欧洲老龄化纵向研究比较（CLESA），其中包括在芬兰、以色列、意大利、荷兰、西班牙和瑞典进行的六项基于人群的老龄化研究数据。研究人群包括5629人，除意大利外所有国家均有参与者。采用逻辑回归分析来评估地位特征、健康状况、日常生活活动能力与自评健康状况之间的关系。为了检验地位特征、健康状况、日常生活活动能力与结果之间的关联在CLESA各国是否存在差异，对每个变量分别考虑定义为“变量*国家”的交互项。回归分析显示，性别、教育程度、终身职业、心脏病和呼吸系统疾病在各国的分布有所不同。在同质因素中，婚姻状况（比值比=1.21）、高血压（比值比=1.41）、中风（比值比=1.67）、糖尿病（比值比=2.15）、癌症（比值比=1.47）、肌肉骨骼疾病（比值比=2.44）和日常生活活动能力（比值比=2.72）被证明与自评健康状况一般或较差显著相关。结果表明，各国在自评健康状况方面存在差异。这些差异不能完全由地位特征、自我报告的疾病或功能能力来解释。然而，一个重要的发现是，在所有国家，大多数医疗和功能健康指标与自评健康状况的关联都是同质的。
