Predictors of elderly mortality:health status, socioeconomic characteristics and social determinants of health

Abstract

This paper uses longitudinal survey data from Taiwan to investigate the predictors of elderly mortality. The empirical analysis confirms a relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and mortality, but this relationship weakens considerably when estimates are conditional on the health status at the time of the first wave survey. In terms of predictive power, the models with an activities of daily living index fare better (as opposed to models with self-evaluated health or self-reported illnesses). Having said that there is a payoff to the consideration of self-evaluated health jointly with other 'objective' health indicators. Other findings include a strong association between life satisfaction and survival, which prevails even after controlling for other explanatory variables.

Mitigating the Shadow of Conflict - The Role of Social and Human Capital for the Reduction of Conflicts

“…Deeg and van Zonneveld (1989) assert that there actually is a connection between happiness and longevity using the Dutch Longitudinal Study among the elderly. Mete (2005) finds similar results even for a completely different culture. Analyzing the question of predictors of elderly mortality in a Taiwanese data-set he finds that life-satisfaction in the form of a life-satisfaction index is a good predictor of survival even when health-status and other socio-economic characteristics are taken into account.…”

Predicting Mortality With the ADL-Staircase in Frail Elderly

“…Even when controlling for confounders and other known predictors, such as age and gender, the instrument could significantly predict mortality. Mete (2005) also found that measures like the ADL index are good predictors of mortality among the elderly (60+) in general. Furthermore, Sonn (1996) found that the ADL-staircase could be used to predict mortality among older people.…”

Changes in self-perceived economic satisfaction and mortality at old ages: Evidence from a survey of middle-aged and elderly adults in Taiwan

“…Thus, the range of values for wealth was 0e3, where higher values indicated greater wealth. Similar household wealth measures have been used in previous literature (for example, Mete, 2005;Galobardes et al, 2007). Self-perceived economic satisfaction was a dichotomous variable determined according to the question, "How do you rate your household economic status?"…”