title: Differences in self-reported physical limitation among older women and men in Ismailia, Egypt.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study explores the reasons for gender differences in self-reported physical limitation among older adults in Ismailia, Egypt.
  
  
  METHODS
  435 women and 448 men, 50 years and older in Ismailia, Egypt, participated in a social survey and tests of physical performance. Ordered logit models were estimated to compare unadjusted gender differences in reported disability with these differences adjusted sequentially for (a) age and objective measures of physical performance, (b) self-reported morbidities and health care use, and (c) social and economic attributes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with men, women more often reported higher levels of limitation in activities of daily living (ADLs), upper-extremity range of motion (ROM), and lower-extremity gross mobility (GM). Adjusting for age and objective measures of physical performance, women and men had similar odds of self-reporting difficulty with ADLs. With sequential adjustments for the remaining variables, women maintained significantly higher odds of self-reported difficulty with upper-extremity ROM and lower-extremity GM.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cross-culturally, gender differences in self-reported disability may arise from objective and subjective perceptions of disability. Collectively, these results and those from prior studies in Bangladesh and the United States suggest that gender gaps in self-reported physical limitation may be associated with the degree of gender equality in society.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, Egypt. zeinabk@aucegypt.edu
authors.forename: Zeinab
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Khadr
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yount
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003906:Developing Countries; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004534:Egypt; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006295:Health Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012737:Sex Factors; D012951:Socialization; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014600:Utilization Review