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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Miles WithamORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Background Disability and quality of life are key outcomes for older people. Little is known about how these measures vary with age and gender across lower income and middle-income countries; such information is necessary to tailor health and social care policy to promote healthy ageing and minimise disability.Methods We analysed data from participants aged 50 years and over from health and demographic surveillance system sites of the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and their Health Network in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, using an abbreviated version of the WHO Study on global AGEing survey instrument. We used the eight-item WHO Quality of Life (WHOQoL) tool to measure quality of life and theWHO Disability Assessment Schedule, version 2 (WHODAS-II) tool to measure disability. We collected selected health status measures via the survey instrument and collected demographic and socioeconomic data from linked surveillance site information. We performed regression analyses to quantify differences between countries in the relationship between age, gender and both quality of life and disability, and we used anchoring vignettes to account for differences in interpretation of disability severity.Results We included 43?935 individuals in the analysis. Mean age was 63.7 years (SD 9.7) and 24?434 (55.6%) were women. In unadjusted analyses across all countries, WHOQoL scores worsened by 0.13 points (95%?CI 0.12 to 0.14) per year increase in age and WHODAS scores worsened by 0.60 points (95%?CI 0.57 to 0.64). WHODAS-II and WHOQoL scores varied markedly between countries, as did the gradient of scores with increasing age. In regression analyses, differences were not fully explained by age, socioeconomic status, marital status, education or health factors. Differences in disability scores between countries were not explained by differences in anchoring vignette responses.Conclusions The relationship between age, sex and both disability and quality of life varies between countries. The findings may guide tailoring of interventions to individual country needs, although these associations require further study.
Author(s): Gomez-Olive FX, Schroders J, Aboderin I, Chatterji S, Davies JI, Debpuur C, Hirve S, Hodgson A, Juvekar S, Kahn K, Kowal P, Nathan R, Ng N, Razzaque A, Sankoh O, Streatfield PK, Tollman SM, Wilopo SA, Witham MD
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: BMJ Global Health
Year: 2017
Volume: 2
Print publication date: 20/12/2017
Online publication date: 20/12/2017
Acceptance date: 10/11/2017
Date deposited: 20/02/2019
ISSN (electronic): 2059-7908
Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000508
DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000508
PubMed id: 29333288
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