Health, functioning, and disability in older adults—present status and future implications

Abstract

Summary Aging is a dynamic process with trends in health status of older adults varying over time due to a range of factors. We examined reported trends in morbidity and mortality among older adults over the past two decades in order to determine patterns of ageing across the world. We found some evidence for compression of morbidity, i.e., less amount of time spent in worse health, when: a) studies were of a good quality based on evaluation criteria scores; b) a disability- or impairment-related measure of morbidity was used; c) studies were longitudinal or; d) studies were conducted in the United States and some other high income countries. Many studies reported evidence to the contrary, i.e., for an expansion of morbidity but with different methods these are not directly comparable. Expansion of morbidity was more common when trends in chronic disease prevalence were studied. Our secondary analysis of data from longitudinal ageing surveys present a similar picture. However, there are considerable variations across countries in patterns of limitations in functioning and within countries over time with no discernible explanations. Data from low income countries is very sparse and efforts to collect information on the health of older adults in less-developed regions of the world is urgently required. Studies focussing on refining measurement with a core set of domains of functioning and studying the impacts of these evolving patterns on the health care system and their economic implications are needed.