Subjective Health Assessments among Older Adults in Mexico

• In Event: 3422 - Section on Aging and Life Course Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 04. Global Health and Inequality

Abstract

The validity of general self-rated health (SRH) assessment is well established; however, there are empirical questions as to the utility of health assessment measures that employ more refined comparisons. The aim of this study is to examine two subjective health assessment measures in comparison to the most widely used SRH measure (Global SRH) among men and women. We investigate agreement between these two measures, their interaction with gender, and their correspondence with objective health conditions using a sample of adults over the age of 60 years from the 2006 La Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición (ENSANUT). ENSANUT is a nationally representative, repeated cross-sectional Mexican survey (n=5,511) and advantageous given its inclusion of three distinct subjective health assessment questions including: Global Self-rated Health, Self-rated Heath Today, and 12-month Self-rated Health. First, we descriptively examine demographic characteristics of the sample and the degree of correspondence between health ratings. Then, we explore congruence between objective health conditions and subjective-health ratings within each SRH measure. We estimate three ordered logistic regression models testing responses on a three-point scale and use predicted probabilities for interpretation. Our findings reaffirm the role of physical health conditions as strong predictors of poor SRH and highlight the significance of mental health as a determinant of subjective health particularly among women in this sample of older Mexican adults. We caution that future research examining older adults’ health should carefully consider the type of subjective health assessment used.

Authors

• Alison Reynolds, University of Missouri

• Claire E. Altman, University of Missouri