Abstract
Background
The acceleration of population aging has brought a lot of attention to the disability among older populations, but existing results about the development patterns of disability were largely mixed. The current study aimed to identify the potential different development patterns of disability and the influential factors using a large, nationally representative sample of the Chinese elderly.
Methods
We adopted a five-wave longitudinal dataset from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), and a total of 1,654 elderly aged 65 and over were obtained. Disability was measured using the Katz index scale which graded individuals on a scale of difficulty to carry out the activities of daily living (ADL). We utilized the conditional growth mixture model (GMM) with time-invariant covariates to identify various development patterns and associated factors.
Results
Compared with those without disability (n = 1,140), individuals living with ADL disability (n = 514) were more likely to be old, female, or Han ethnic, eat more healthy food and suffer from chronic disease. Two groups with distinct developmental trajectories of ADL disability were identified among those with ADL disability, including the Slightly Increasing and the Quickly Increasing groups. People who did less housework (OR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.12−0.90; p = 0.030), suffered from stroke (OR = 5.39, 95% CI:1.43−20.35; p = 0.013) or dementia (OR = 10.29, 95% CI: 1.01−104.44; p = 0.049) were more likely to be classified into the Quickly Increasing group.
Conclusion
There existed two development patterns of ADL disability among the Chinese elderly. Besides, doing housework could help prevent the deterioration of disability to some extent, and suffering from stroke or dementia may accelerate the deterioration of ADL ability in later years. The findings provided implications for public health interventions.
Growth Patterns of Activity of Daily Living Disability and Associated Factors among the Chinese Elderly: A Twelve-Year Longitudinal Study
