The Effects of Early Health on The Elderly Health

[[abstract]]Objectives of the study in this thesis is to investigate the effects of early health status in the life course on the statues of self-assessed health, having chronicle diseases, Activity of Daily Living (ADL) and physical function at old ages of the elderly aged 60 and above in the Taiwan area. Data used in this study were from the Fifth-Wave Followed-Up Survey ofthe Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan conducted by the Bureau of Health Promotion of the Department of Health in 2003. Totally 3,089 follow-up cases ofthe elderly aged 60 and over who were the original sample ofthe 1989 First-Wave Elderly Survey and the supplement sample of the 1996 Third-Wave Elderly Survey but survived and interviewed in the 2003 Fifth-Wave Elderly Survey. This study used logistic regression to investigate the effects ofboth the self-assessed health status and the experience of lying on bed for more than one month because of heath problem before age 16 on the statues of self-assessed health, having chronicle diseases, Activity of Daily Living (ADL) and physical function at old ages ofthe elderly aged 60 and above after controlling for their demographic and social background characteristics. Analytical results show that those interviewed elderly who reported poor health before age 16訂e 2.18, 1.73 and 1.20 respectively more likely to reported poor health, having two or more chronic diseases and having difficulty in perfonning one or more physical functions than those who reported good health. They are all statistical significance. Thus, this study concludes that one's early health status does have significant effects on one's health status at old ages including self-assessed health status, having two or more chronic diseases and having handicap in perfonning one or more physical function. In order to investigate more comprehensively of the effects of early health status in the life course on the health status at old ages ,this study suggests that more infonnation needed to collect including biological, psychological, social, environment and other health related factors that occurred in one's life course. This infonnation then can be liked to the health status at old ages. Research results of the study will have important implication for the design of health promotion programs at the early stage of one's life course to promote health at old ages