Abstract
BackgroundSelf-rated health (SRH) has been widely used to measure the overall health status of older adults. Research has shown that SRH is determined by a large array of factors, such as chronic disease conditions, genetic markers (e.g., Apolipoprotein E, APOE, NM_000041), stress factors, and health behaviors. However, few studies have incorporated these factors simultaneously in the analytic framework of SRH. The aim of this study is to examine the associations of these four sets of factors with SRH.MethodsUsing a dataset from a population-based, random-cluster survey of 1,005 elderly respondents aged 54–91 conducted in Taiwan in 2000, we use logistic regressions to examine associations of chronic health conditions, the APOE4 allele stress factors, and health behaviors with SRH. The four disease conditions include diabetes, heart diseases, gastric ulcers, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Stress factors are measured by traumatic events (having an earthquake-damaged house) and chronic life stress (financial difficulty). Health behaviors include smoking, drinking alcohol, vegetable and fruit intake, daily milk intake, and physical exercise.ResultsDiabetes, heart diseases, gastric ulcers, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are found to be associated with 2.63 (95 % CI: 1.75–3.95), 1.72 (95 % CI: 1.15–2.58), 1.94 (95 % CI: 1.35–2.80), and 2.54 (95 % CI: 1.66–3.92) odds ratios of poor SRH. The APOE4 allele is found to be significantly associated with poor SRH with odd ratio of 1.58 (95 % CI: 1.02–2.41). Financial difficulty is associated with increased likelihood of poor SRH, with odds ratios of 1.76 (95 % CI: 1.22–2.54) Doing exercise more than 5 times per week are associated with reduced likelihood of poor SRH by 44 % (odds ratio is 0.56, 95 % CI: 0.39–1.82). The interaction term between gender and gastric ulcer showed that the impact of gastric ulcer on SRH is more pronounced in women than in men, with an odds ratio of 2.63 (95 % CI: 1.24–5.58).ConclusionsChronic conditions and the APOE4 allele are significantly associated with increased likelihood of reporting poor health, and the associations appear differently among women and men. To better understand the mechanism of how people self-assess their overall health, chronic conditions and genetic components should be considered together with conventional factors such as life stress and health behaviors.
Highlights
Self-rated health (SRH) has been widely used to measure the overall health status of older adults
Research has shown that carriers of the Apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) allele have an increased risk for earlier age of onset of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease [28, 29], as well as decline in cognitive function and functional status among older adults without dementia [30]. These findings suggest that the APOE4 allele plays an important role in SRH
26.97 % of individuals reported poor SRH, and poor SRH was prevalent in individuals who reported diabetes (45.86 %, p < 0.001), heart diseases (40.58 %, p < 0.001), ulcer (36.44 %, p < 0.001) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (46.92 %, p < 0.001)
Summary
Self-rated health (SRH) has been widely used to measure the overall health status of older adults. Research has shown that SRH is determined by a large array of factors, such as chronic disease conditions, genetic markers (e.g., Apolipoprotein E, APOE, NM_000041), stress factors, and health behaviors. Self-rated health (SRH) is one of the most widely used indicators in population health research [1, 2] and is assumed to be a valid measure of the overall global assessment of a person’s current well-being [3]. Measures of chronic life stress generally assess the impact of stressors that last for prolonged but often unspecified periods – for example, low socioeconomic status (SES), or poor working condition or long hours [15, 16]
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