Health and well-being in the elderley : A prospective population- based study

Abstract: The Albertina Project is an epidemiological study of the social, medical, economic and mortality situation among 9440 people, 75 years or older, living in the city of Uppsala, Sweden. Most people lived in their own home. The housing standard appeared to be satisfactory in the majority of cases. The most important factors related to perceived health were activity level, contentment with life lack of and mobility problems.More than half of the study population was classified as poor according to the official definition. There was a significant correlation between income on the one hand and mobility activities and household structure on the other, and a non-significant tendency towards a correlation to perceived , but no correlation to contentment.During eleven years follow-up, 72% of the study population died. In the complete study population, mortality from all causes during follow-up was strongly correlated to age, sex and income. However, in a subsample where more data were available, mobility and perceived health but not income, were significantly correlated to mortality in a set of multivariate analyses, indicating that income was a weaker determinant than the other twofactors.There is no strong need for special or general health surveys among elderly people living in their own home if the purpose of the survey is to detect unknown medical problems or decrease morbidity and mortality.The practical implication of the findings is that more attention should be focussed on efforts to improve old people's satisfaction with their life situation rather than on marginal improvements of their medical situation.