Examining Late-Life Functional Limitation Trajectories and Their Associations With Underlying Onset, Recovery, and Mortality
Open Access
- 14 February 2014
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
- Vol. 69 (2), 275-286
- https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt099
Abstract
Objectives.Identify common trajectories of physical functional limitation and mortality among Taiwanese 50 and older as they age, link these to underlying transitions in onset, recovery, and mortality, and assess associations between trajectories and a set of risk factors.Method.Longitudinal data from 4 waves of the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Middle-Aged and Elderly in Taiwan, collected between 1996 and 2007, are analyzed using a summary measure indicating difficulty with one or more of 7 physical functions. A group-based trajectory model identifies common trajectories. Shorter term transition probabilities that underlie multiperiod trajectories are examined. Multinomial regression associates risk factors with trajectory group membership.Results.Best fitting the data is a model with 3 groups characterized as early, mid, and late onset of limitation. Roughly half the population follows the trajectory of mid onset and a quarter each of the other 2. Females and those least educated are most likely to belong to the early-onset group.Discussion.The analysis advances understanding of late-life functioning by focusing on the heterogeneity of functional limitation experience, appropriately accounting for the relation between functional limitation and mortality and linking long-term patterns with short-term changes in functional limitation.Keywords
This publication has 27 references indexed in Scilit:
- Losing the Ability in Activities of Daily Living in the Oldest Old: A Hierarchic Disability Scale from the Newcastle 85+ StudyPLOS ONE, 2012
- Trends in late-life disability in Taiwan, 1989–2007: The roles of education, environment, and technologyPopulation Studies, 2011
- Treatment of Death in the Analysis of Longitudinal Studies of Gerontological OutcomesThe Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 2010
- Trajectory of functional status among older Taiwanese: Gender and age variationsSocial Science & Medicine (1982), 2010
- Trends In Disability And Related Chronic Conditions Among People Ages Fifty To Sixty-FourHealth Affairs, 2010
- Trajectories of Disability in the Last Year of LifeThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2010
- Dynamics and Heterogeneity in the Process of Human Frailty and Aging: Evidence From the U.S. Older Adult PopulationThe Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2009
- Twelve-year depressive symptom trajectories and their predictors in a community sample of older adultsInternational Psychogeriatrics, 2008
- Assessing the building blocks of functionUtilizing measures of functional limitationAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2003
- The disablement processSocial Science & Medicine, 1994