title: Associations of socio-economic position and disability among older women in Britain and Jyväskylä, Finland.
abstract: The aim was to compare the pattern of associations in measures of socio-economic position and disability among British and Finnish older women. In Britain data from the British Women's Heart and Health Study was used. Women from 23 towns took part in a nurse-assessed medical examination and postal questionnaire (n = 4286). In Finland, data from the Evergreen study was used. Eight hundred and four women from the city of Jyväskylä were interviewed at home. Socio-economic position was measured according to social class in childhood, education, use of a car, home ownership and previous occupation. Disability measures included questions on difficulties in washing/dressing and climbing stairs. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between disability and socio-economic position. In the age-adjusted analysis of both samples increasing disability in washing/dressing and climbing stairs was associated with at least one of the measures of deprivation. The relationship between socio-economic position and disability was more distinct in the British than Finnish women. Despite adjustment for a range of confounders, the relationship between socio-economic position and disability was not much attenuated, particularly in the British women. The associations in the measures of socio-economic position and disability showed a slightly different pattern between the British and Finnish women.
authors.affiliation: The Finnish Center for Interdisciplinary Gerontology, P.O. Box 35 (Viveca), FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland. nina.rautio@sport.jyu.fi
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rautio
authors.forename: Joy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adamson
authors.forename: Eino
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heikkinen
authors.forename: Shah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ebrahim
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009790:Occupations; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health