Characteristics and Incidence of Chronic Illness in Community‐Dwelling Predominantly Male U.S. Veteran Centenarians
Objectives To assess the incidence of chronic illness and its effect on veteran centenarians. Design Retrospective longitudinal cohort study. Setting United States Veterans Affairs Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW). Participants Community‐dwelling veterans born between 1910 and 1915 who survived to at...
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Published in | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) Vol. 65; no. 9; pp. 2100 - 2106 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
01.09.2017
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Objectives
To assess the incidence of chronic illness and its effect on veteran centenarians.
Design
Retrospective longitudinal cohort study.
Setting
United States Veterans Affairs Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW).
Participants
Community‐dwelling veterans born between 1910 and 1915 who survived to at least age 80 (N = 86,892; 31,121 octogenarians, 52,420 nonagenarians, 3,351 centenarians).
Measurements
The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate cumulative incidence of chronic conditions according to age group. Incidence rates were compared using the log‐rank test. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate unadjusted hazard ratios.
Results
Ninety‐seven percent of Centenarians were male, 88.0% were white, 31.8% were widowed, 87.5% served in World War II, and 63.9% did not have a service‐related disability. The incidence rates of chronic illnesses were higher in octogenarians than centenarians (atrial fibrillation, 15.0% vs 0.6%, P < .001; heart failure, 19.3% vs 0.4%, P < .001; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 17.9% vs 0.6%, P < .001; hypertension, 29.6% vs 3.0%, P < .001; end‐stage renal disease, 7.2% vs 0.1%, P < .001; malignancy, 14.1% vs 0.6%, P < .001; diabetes mellitus, 11.1% vs 0.4%, P < .001; stroke, 4.6% vs 0.4%, P < .001) and in nonagenarians than centenarians (atrial fibrillation, 13.2% vs 3.5%, P < .001; heart failure, 15.8% vs 3.3%, P < .001; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 11.8% vs 3.5%, P < .001; hypertension, 27.2% vs 12.8%, P < .001; end‐stage renal disease, 11.9% vs 4.5%, P < .001; malignancy, 8.6% vs 2.3%, P < .001; diabetes mellitus, 7.5% vs 2.2%, P < .001; and stroke, 3.5% vs 1.3%, P < .001).
Conclusion
In a large cohort of predominantly male community‐dwelling elderly veterans, centenarians had a lower incidence of chronic illness than those in their 80s and 90s, demonstrating similar compression of morbidity and extension of health span observed in other studies. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Raya Elfadel Kheirbek http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0755-1940 |
ISSN: | 0002-8614 1532-5415 |
DOI: | 10.1111/jgs.14900 |