Predictors of elderly mortality:health status, socioeconomic characteristics and social determinants of health

• Published in: Health economics Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 135 - 148
• Main Author: Mete, Cem
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.02.2005; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Series: Health Economics
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living; Age Factors; Aged; China; Chronic Disease; elderly mortality; Elderly people; Female; Health; Health economics; health inequality; Health Status; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Middle Aged; Mortality; National Health Programs - statistics & numerical data; Older people; Personal Satisfaction; Polls & surveys; Predictors; Sex Factors; Social Environment; Socioeconomic Factors; socioeconomic health differentials; Socioeconomic indicators; Statistical analysis; Studies; Subjective judgments; Taiwan; Unemployment; Universal Coverage - statistics & numerical data; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1057-9230; 1099-1050
• DOI: 10.1002/hec.892

This paper uses longitudinal survey data from Taiwan to investigate the predictors of elderly mortality. The empirical analysis confirms a relationship between socioeconomic characteristics and mortality, but this relationship weakens considerably when estimates are conditional on the health status at the time of the first wave survey. In terms of predictive power, the models with an activities of daily living index fare better (as opposed to models with self‐evaluated health or self‐reported illnesses). Having said that there is a payoff to the consideration of self‐evaluated health jointly with other ‘objective’ health indicators. Other findings include a strong association between life satisfaction and survival, which prevails even after controlling for other explanatory variables. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.