Active life expectancy for people over 65 years old in a local city in the northern part of Tohoku district

Abstract

Life expectancy does not necessarily match quality of life (QOL). A cohort study involving a population of 10,107 in a certain city of Japan was conducted to evaluate active life expectancy (ALE), which has a direct relationship with QOL. The ALE that took functional recovery rates into account was 17.20 and 19.08 years for males and females respectively, at the age of 65. These values increased by 2.98 and 3.87 years for men and women, respectively, compared with when functional recovery rates were not considered. ALE may serve as an indicator for the objective evaluation of various public health services provided by local governments.

Active life expectancy based on activities of daily living for older people living in a rural community in Japan

“…However, we guess that the number of items in ADL may have some influence on ALE estimation if disability in an additional ADL item is more prevalent than that in other items. Therefore, we selected the same ADL items as the other studies 4,6 , 7 to define functional independence in ADL, although we used five ADL items, including walking, feeding, bathing, dressing, and incontinence in this study. As for the second issue, we must consider the representativeness of the analyzable sample among the whole community in which the study was conducted.…”

“…ALE is a useful health index for an aging population because it combines information on functional status and mortality into a single and meaningful summary measure. Nevertheless, only a limited number of studies on ALE estimation for elderly Japanese populations have been reported during the last decade 3–8 . To identify additional information on ALE estimation for a Japanese population in a community, we identified functional transitions in ADL and estimated ALE based on ADL among older people in a rural community in Japan.…”

“…Nevertheless, only a limited number of studies on ALE estimation for elderly Japanese populations have been S79 reported during the last decade. [3][4][5][6][7][8] To identify additional information on ALE estimation for a Japanese population in a community, we identified functional transitions in ADL and estimated ALE based on ADL among older people in a rural community in Japan.…”

Association Between Higher-Level Functional Capacity and Subjective Well-Being in Older Adults with Chronic Conditions: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…We think this situation means that many researchers accept the content validity of the PGCMS in Japan. Regarding concurrent validity, Fukuda, et al (2002) reported that the correlation coefficients between the SWB and a self-rated scale of depression were −0.59 for males and −0.64 for females, 7 which means good concurrent validity of PGCMS. Moreover, we also checked factorial validity by a confirmatory factor analysis for PGCMS in a sample of the present study.…”