Abstract
Differences in frailty between rural and urban older adults have been demonstrated in developed countries. It is not understood how the apparently greater differences in living conditions between different types of regions in China may affect health and outcomes of older Chinese adults. Here, a frailty index (FI) based on the accumulation of health deficits was used to investigate health and survival differences in older Chinese men and women. We studied rural (n=1121) and urban (n=2136) older adults (55-97 years old) in the Beijing Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), of whom 48.9% (rural) and 35.4% (urban) died over 8 years of follow-up. The FI was generated from 35 self-reported health deficits. The mean FI increased exponentially with age (r 2=0.87) and was higher in women than in men. The death rate increased significantly with increases in the FI, but women showed a lower death rate than did men. The mean FI in urban older adults (0.12±0.10) was lower than that in their rural counterparts (0.14±0.12, p<0.001). Urban dwellers showed better survival compared with their counterparts in the rural areas. Adjusted by age, sex, and education level, the hazard ratio for death for each increment of the FI was 1.28 for urban people and 1.27 for rural people. Chinese urban dwellers showed better health and survival than rural dwelling older adults. The FI readily summarized health and mortality differences among different geographic regions, reflecting the impact of the environment, socioeconomics, and medical services on deficit accumulation and on survival.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3-8 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2012 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was also supported by operating grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Fountain Innovation Fund of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Research Foundation . Kenneth Rockwood receives career support through the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation as the Kathryn Allen Weldon Professor of Alzheimer Research. The Canada–China Collaboration is funded jointly by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (CIHR CCI-92216: MOP62823 and NSFC30811120439). Collection of data used in this study was funded by Beijing Geriatric Clinical and Research Center at Beijing Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University.
Funding Information:
Data collection was funded by Beijing Geriatric Clinical and Research Center at Beijing Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University. Data analysis was funded by China-Canada Joint Health Research Initiative Program by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the National Natural Science Foundation. The funding agents were not involved in the study design, data processing and analysis, result presentation and interpretation, and manuscript preparation and submission.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Health(social science)
- Ageing
- Gerontology
- Geriatrics and Gerontology