Predictors of elderly mortality: health status, socioeconomic characteristics and social determinants of health.
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.
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Cem
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The World Bank, Washington, DC 20433, USA. cmete@worldbank.org
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012737:Sex Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013624:Taiwan; D014478:Unemployment; D019472:Universal Health Insurance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data