scholarly journals Gender differences in the predictive role of self-rated health on short-term risk of mortality among older adults

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 205031211666697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Mortality Risk ◽  
Older Men ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Risk Of Mortality ◽  
Predictive Role ◽  
Pooled Sample

Objectives: Despite the well-established association between self-rated health and mortality, research findings have been inconsistent regarding how men and women differ on this link. Using a national sample in the United States, this study compared American male and female older adults for the predictive role of baseline self-rated health on the short-term risk of mortality. Methods: This longitudinal study followed 1500 older adults (573 men (38.2%) and 927 women (61.8%)) aged 66 years or older for 3 years from 2001 to 2004. The main predictor of interest was self-rated health, which was measured using a single item in 2001. The outcome was the risk of all-cause mortality during the 3-year follow-up period. Demographic factors (race and age), socio-economic factors (education and marital status), and health behaviors (smoking and drinking) were covariates. Gender was the focal moderator. We ran logistic regression models in the pooled sample and also stratified by gender, with self-rated health treated as either nominal variables, poor compared to other levels (i.e. fair, good, or excellent) or excellent compared to other levels (i.e. good, fair, or poor), or an ordinal variable. Results: In the pooled sample, baseline self-rated health predicted mortality risk, regardless of how the variable was treated. We found a significant interaction between gender and poor self-rated health, indicating a stronger effect of poor self-rated health on mortality risk for men compared to women. Gender did not interact with excellent self-rated health on mortality. Conclusion: Perceived poor self-rated health better reflects risk of mortality over a short period of time for older men compared to older women. Clinicians may need to take poor self-rated health of older men very seriously. Future research should test whether the differential predictive validity of self-rated health based on gender is due to a different meaning of poor self-rated health for older men and women and whether poor self-rated health reflects different health statuses based on gender.

scholarly journals PREDICTORS OF MORTALITY RISK AMONG MEDICARE ADVANTAGE ENROLLEES

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S724-S724
Author(s):  
Soyoung Choun ◽  
Lan Doan ◽  
Diana J Govier ◽  
Karen Hooker ◽  
Carolyn Mendez-Luck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Mortality Risk ◽  
Chronic Health Conditions ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Medicare Advantage ◽  
Predictors Of Mortality ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Risk Of Mortality ◽  
All Cause Mortality

Abstract Overall all-cause mortality rates have declined significantly in past decades among individuals aged 65 and above in every racial and ethnic group. We explored demographic, overall health, and disability development as predictors of mortality in Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. We used data from the 2014-2018 Medicare Health Outcomes Survey, a nationally representative panel survey with a two-year follow-up, administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Our sample consisted of 1,273,494 community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older (Mage = 74.5 years, age range: 65-109 years) enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Mortality was assessed over a 2-year follow-up period. We used Cox proportional hazards regression analysis to predict risk of all-cause mortality by demographics, self-rated health, chronic health conditions, smoking status, and activities of daily living (ADLs). Among all participants, the mortality rate was 7.0% (n = 88,058) at 2-year follow-up. Advanced age and being male were significantly associated with greater risk of mortality, while higher levels of education and income were inversely associated with mortality. Controlling for other factors, white adults had higher mortality risk than black or African American, Hispanic, and Asian older adults. Individuals who were unmarried, had lower self-rated health, had more chronic health conditions, smoked, and had more ADL limitations had higher mortality risk. Our findings suggest that sustained health and better functional capacity are important elements in decreasing the risk of mortality in older adults.

scholarly journals Increased risk of mortality associated with social isolation in older men: only when feeling lonely? Results from the Amsterdam Study of the Elderly (AMSTEL)

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 843-853 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Holwerda ◽  
A. T. F. Beekman ◽  
D. J. H. Deeg ◽  
M. L. Stek ◽  
T. G. van Tilburg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Isolation ◽  
Mortality Risk ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Older Men ◽  
Mortality Data ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Risk Of Mortality ◽  
Increased Risk

BackgroundLoneliness has a significant influence on both physical and mental health. Few studies have investigated the possible associations of loneliness with mortality risk, impact on men and women and whether this impact concerns the situation of being alone (social isolation), experiencing loneliness (feeling lonely) or both. The current study investigated whether social isolation and feelings of loneliness in older men and women were associated with increased mortality risk, controlling for depression and other potentially confounding factors.MethodIn our prospective cohort study of 4004 older persons aged 65–84 years with a 10-year follow-up of mortality data a Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to test whether social isolation factors and feelings of loneliness predicted an increased risk of mortality, controlling for psychiatric disorders and medical conditions, cognitive functioning, functional status and sociodemographic factors.ResultsAt 10 years follow-up, significantly more men than women with feelings of loneliness at baseline had died. After adjustment for explanatory variables including social isolation, the mortality hazard ratio for feelings of loneliness was 1.30 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04–1.63] in men and 1.04 (95% CI 0.90–1.24) in women. No higher risk of mortality was found for social isolation.ConclusionsFeelings of loneliness rather than social isolation factors were found to be a major risk factor for increasing mortality in older men. Developing a better understanding of the nature of this association may help us to improve quality of life and longevity, especially in older men.

The Case of Thematic Tests Adapted to Older Adults

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoît Verdon
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Older Men ◽  
Elderly Persons ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Projective Tests ◽  
New Material ◽  
Older Men And Women ◽  
Latent Content

Since the 1950s, the growing interest of clinicians in using projective tests to study normal or pathological aging processes has led to the creation of several thematic tests for older adults. This development reflects their authors’ belief that the TAT is not suitable to the concerns and anxieties of elderly persons. The new material thus refers explicitly to situations related to age; it aims to enable older persons to express needs they cannot verbalize during consultations. The psychodynamic approach to thematic testing is based on the differentiation between the pictures’ manifest and latent content, eliciting responses linked to mental processes and issues the respondent is unaware of. The cards do not necessarily have to show aging characters to elicit identification: The situations shown in the pictures are linked to loss, rivalry, helplessness, and renunciation, all issues elderly respondents can identify with and that lead them to express their mental fragilities and resources. The article first explains the principles underlying four of these thematic tests, then develops several examples of stories told for card 3BM of the TAT, thus showing the effectiveness of this tool for the understanding and differentiation of loss-related issues facing older men and women.

scholarly journals 306 - Loneliness and mortality in older adults and the role of depression

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (S1) ◽  
pp. 64-64
Author(s):  
T.J. Holwerda ◽  
D. Rhebergen ◽  
H.C. Comijs ◽  
J.J.M. Dekker ◽  
M.L. Stek
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Mortality Risk ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Clinical Perspective ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression

Background:The prevalence of loneliness increases with age. The presence of loneliness in older adults has been found to be associated with health problems such as depression, decreased cognitive functioning, increases in systolic blood pressure and increased mortality. The underlying mechanisms of the higher mortality risk are largely unknown.Methods:Meta-analysis to investigate the present evidence for the associations between loneliness and mortality. Cross-sectional studies investigating the associations between loneliness and cardiovascular disease and between loneliness and cortisol in 378 depressed and 132 non-depressed older adults.Results:Loneliness appears to be associated with increased mortality, although when only studies are included that consider depression as a covariate, the association is not significant. Therefore it seems likely that depression plays a mediating role in the higher mortality risk.We did not find a significant association between loneliness and cardiovascular disease. In contrast, loneliness was significantly associated with lower cortisol output and decreased dexamethasone suppression.Discussion:The results and their implications for prevention and treatment will be discussed from a clinical perspective as well as a general health perspective. Is loneliness as potentially dangerous as depression?

The role of gender in the association of social capital, social support, and economic security with self-rated health among older adults in deprived communities in Beirut

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1371-1379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiam Chemaitelly ◽  
Caroline Kanaan ◽  
Hind Beydoun ◽  
Monique Chaaya ◽  
Mona Kanaan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Capital Social ◽  
Self Rated Health

Impact of relative muscle power on hospitalization and all-cause mortality in older adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Losa-Reyna ◽  
Julian Alcazar ◽  
Jose Carnicero ◽  
Ana Alfaro-Acha ◽  
Carmen Castillo-Gallego ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Mortality Risk ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Muscle Power ◽  
Handgrip Strength ◽  
Relative Power ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Adjusted Risk ◽  
Power Group ◽  
All Cause Mortality

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of lower-limb muscle power with mortality and hospitalization. Methods A total of 1928 subjects from the Toledo Study for Healthy Aging were included. Muscle power was assessed with the 5-repetition STS test and subjects were classified into different groups of relative power (i.e. normalized to body mass) according to sex-specific tertiles and their inability to perform the test. Mean follow-up periods for hospitalization and all-cause mortality were 3.3 and 6.3 years, respectively. Results Compared to the high relative muscle power group, men with low (HR [95%CI]= 2.1 [1.2-3.6]) and women with very low and low (HR [95%CI]= 4.7 [3.0-7.4] and 1.8 [1.2-2.7]) relative power had an increased age-adjusted risk of hospitalization. After adjusting for several covariates (age, physical activity, BMI education, depression, comorbidities, disability and handgrip strength) these effects were attenuated (men and women with very low relative power: HR [95%CI]= 1.6 [0.9-2.9] and 2.8 [1.6-4.9]). The very low relative muscle power group had also an increased all-cause mortality risk (age-adjusted) in both men and women (HR [95%CI]= 2.3 [1.4-3.9] and 2.9 [1.6-5.3]). After adjusting for all the covariates, a significantly increased mortality risk was observed only in men (HR [95% CI]= 2.1 [1.1-3.8], (women HR [95% CI]= 1.6 [0.8-3.2]), with very low levels of relative power. Conclusion Relative muscle power was independently and negatively associated with mortality and hospitalization in older adults. An augmented all-cause mortality risk was noted in the lowest group of relative muscle power.

The portrayal of elderly men and women in Hungarian television news programmes

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Gábor Kovács ◽  
Petra Aczél ◽  
Tamás Bokor
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Television News ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Older Men ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Qualitative Variables ◽  
Older Men And Women

Abstract Mass media research on the portrayal of older people has primarily focused on television series and advertisements. News programmes on television have received little attention. We argue that viewers perceive characters on the news as more direct and more accurate representations of social reality than fictional characters, and therefore portrayals on the news are more likely to be integrated in viewers’ stereotypes about elderly people or used as standards of comparison. In order to explore potential differences in the representation of senior men and women, we conducted a quantitative content analysis on a sample of 754 elderly people who appeared on the evening news programmes of four major Hungarian television channels with high viewership. Each character was coded in terms of 115 qualitative variables. Our results indicate that older men are portrayed significantly more often than women as affluent, elegant, knowledgeable, powerful and actively working. By contrast, women are more commonly shown as kind, family-oriented, in ordinary roles (e.g. as the ‘woman in the street’) and engaged in less-productive activities such as shopping. Based on previous research on the role of mass media in the socialisation process as well as social comparison theory, we discuss how these imbalances in the representation of older men and women may affect viewers of different age groups, genders and social status.

scholarly journals Depression Fully Mediates the Effect of Multimorbidity on Self-Rated Health for Economically Disadvantaged African American Men but Not Women

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
James Smith ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Economically Disadvantaged ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Self Rated Health

Background. Although chronic medical conditions (CMCs), depression, and self-rated health (SRH) are associated, their associations may depend on race, ethnicity, gender, and their intersections. In predominantly White samples, SRH is shown to better reflect the risk of mortality and multimorbidity for men than it is for women, which suggests that poor SRH among women may be caused not only by CMCs, but also by conditions like depression and social relations—a phenomenon known as “the sponge hypothesis.” However, little is known about gender differences in the links between multimorbidity, depression, and SRH among African Americans (AAs). Objective. To study whether depression differently mediates the association between multimorbidity and SRH for economically disadvantaged AA men and women. Methods. This survey was conducted in South Los Angeles between 2015 to 2018. A total number of 740 AA older adults (age ≥ 55 years) were enrolled in this study, of which 266 were AA men and 474 were AA women. The independent variable was the number of CMCs. The dependent variable was SRH. Age and socioeconomic status (educational attainment and marital status) were covariates. Depression was the mediator. Gender was the moderator. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. Results. In the pooled sample that included both genders, depression partially mediated the effect of multimorbidity on SRH. In gender specific models, depression fully mediated the effects of multimorbidity on SRH for AA men but not AA women. For AA women but not AA men, social isolation was associated with depression. Conclusion. Gender differences exist in the role of depression as an underlying mechanism behind the effect of multimorbidity on the SRH of economically disadvantaged AA older adults. For AA men, depression may be the reason people with multimorbidity report worse SRH. For AA women, depression is only one of the many reasons individuals with multiple CMCs report poor SRH. Prevention of depression may differently influence the SRH of low-income AA men and women with multimorbidity.

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