Self-rated health and mortality: gender- and age-specific contributions of explanatory factors in South Korea.
OBJECTIVE
This study explored gender- and age-specific contributions of explanatory factors to the relationship between self-rated health (SRH) and all-cause mortality.


METHODS
We used mortality follow-up data from 1998 and 2001 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys of South Korea (n = 9,663). Explanatory factors included baseline health status, socioeconomic status, health behaviors, clinical risk factors, psychosocial factors, and family medical history.


RESULTS
The ability of explanatory factors to explain the SRH-mortality relationship differed with age. For those aged 30-64, most excess hazards were explained by all explanatory factors. However, a large part of the mortality differentials by SRH remained unexplained among elderly samples.


CONCLUSIONS
A wide range of health-related factors could explain the SRH-mortality association in younger population but not in older population. Factors to explain a large part of mortality differentials by SRH among older population should be identified.
Khang
Young-Ho
YH
Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. youngk@amc.seoul.kr
Kim
Hye Ryun
HR
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors