Expecting the best or fearing the worst: Discrepancies between self‐rated health and frailty in an ageing Irish population

Abstract

Objectives. Ageing populations have the propensity to rate their health status more inaccurately than their younger counterparts. As a result, we (1) devised a metric which categorized older adults into groups based on the discrepancy between their self-rated health (SRH) and Frailty Index (FI) scores, and (2) investigated which factors predict group membership.Design. A cross-sectional design was employed using data from The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA).Methods. A health asymmetry metric was derived: this categorized 6907 participants (aged 50+ years) into three groups: 'health pessimistic' where participants underestimated their healthiness, 'health realistic' where participants accurately assessed their health, and 'health optimistic' where participants overestimated their healthiness. A multinomial logistic regression modelled the ability of a set of sociodemographic, psychosocial, and health behaviour variables in predicting membership of these categories.Results. A significant proportion of the study population were categorized as 'health realistic' (~69%). The prevalence rates of health optimistic individuals increased in older age groups, and conversely, health pessimistic rates decreased in older age groups. Most notably, psychosocial factors significantly predicted being health pessimistic: such as anxiety (OR = 1.03), loneliness (OR = 1.04), and decreased social connectedness (OR = 0.87). However, less clear sociodemographic, psychosocial, and health behaviour associations were found for being health optimistic. Conclusion.Health asymmetry is a useful method of identifying at-risk individuals for inaccurate SRH. The ability of this metric to predict clinical mental health outcomes should be investigated.

Factors mitigate the effect of widowhood’s mental health impact: A longitudinal test from individual, familial, and social perspectives.

“…We select the following variables to control for effects on estimated outcomes as they affect both widowhood and depression. Specifically, we control the health of the individual, that is, actual health status and self-reported health status (Calvey et al, 2022). Actual health status refers to older adults' diagnosed physiological diseases.…”

“…In this section, we examine the impacts of widowhood on depression from the perspective of individual health asymmetries. Following the method of previous literature (Calvey et al, 2022), we use actual health and self-reported health variables to measure health asymmetry. Actual and self-reported health variables have been described in detail in the previous sections.…”

Association of the number of teeth and self-rated mastication with self-rated health in community-dwelling Japanese aged 40 years and older: the Yamagata cohort study

“…Risk factors for poor SRH are also included in the survey. Physical or mental conditions, psychosocial factors, and socioeconomic status, including educational status, physical activity, smoking, drinking habits, BMI, and quality of sleep, have been discussed extensively in relation to SRH [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Furthermore, the associations between SRH and oral health status, such as the number of teeth, have been investigated.…”

Association of the number of teeth and self-rated mastication with self-rated health in community-dwelling Japanese aged 40 years and older: the Yamagata cohort study

“…In Japan, the SRH index has been valued and included as an important question in the comprehensive survey of living conditions, which is conducted routinely by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare for all households and their members within a stratified random sampling area from the census zone 8 .Risk factors for poor SRH have been assessed in previous studies. Physical or mental conditions, psychosocial factors, and socioeconomic status, including educational status, physical activity, smoking, drinking habits, BMI, and quality of sleep, have been discussed extensively in relation to SRH [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Furthermore, the associations between…”

“…Risk factors for poor SRH have been assessed in previous studies. Physical or mental conditions, psychosocial factors, and socioeconomic status, including educational status, physical activity, smoking, drinking habits, BMI, and quality of sleep, have been discussed extensively in relation to SRH [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Furthermore, the associations between…”