Medical, social and psychological factors as predictors of survival — a follow-up from 67 to 87 years of age

Abstract

All pensioners in a primary care district ( n = 142) participating in a multi-disciplinary population study were followed from 67 years of age to the age of 87 with regard to survival. A multivariate survival analysis of psychological and social factors and medical symptoms at 67 years of age was used to test the relationship between such data and survival. Out of the 23 original medical, social and psychological factors/variables, the successive ranking risk factors for men were: positive attitudes to old-age homes, high social class, many reported disease at age 67, low degree of need satisfaction, and many reported earlier disease. For women the ranking of risk factors for early death were: early death age of mother, low degree of social rigidity, smoking, field-dependency and need of social help. The results reflect the interplay between hereditary, medical, social and psychological factors in predicting survival and how this interplay differs between males and females.