A simple measure with complex determinants: investigation of the correlates of self-rated health in older men and women from three continents

Table 1 Demographic and health characteristics for each sample

Characteristic	Australia	USA	Japan	Korea
N	7,355	10,358	3,541	3,971
Sex (% male)	16.1	41.9	44.2	41.4
Mean age in years (SD)	77.2 (6.50)	74.5 (7.30)	74.4 (6.60)	73.0 (6.31)
Partner status (% partnered)	52.2	58.8	64.4	62.8
Educational level (%)
Grade 9 or lower	27.3	16.6	60.6	82.1
Grades 10-12	37.8	46.3	29.1	11.7
Post-secondary	34.9	37.0	10.3	6.2
Smoking (% non-smoker)	95.0	90.2	83.0	84.8
Drinking Alcohol (% abstainer)	27.7	70.3	66.1	74.3
Medical conditions (%)
None	19.3	7.7	32.5	36.3
One	32.8	24.9	45.1	39.3
More than one	47.9	67.4	22.4	24.4
ADL Difficulty (% with no difficulty)	86.4	86.1	96.9	91.3
Mental Health Status (% poor)	12.4	14.9	13.3	23.1
Self-rated health (%)^a
Poor	3.0	8.5	2.5	40.6
Fair	22.1	22.7	20.8	30.9
Good	40.4	32.4	41.2	23.5
Very good	27.3	27.6	19.1	4.0
Excellent	7.1	8.8	16.4	1.0
Mean self-rated health (SD)^b	2.87 (0.94)	2.94 (1.09)	2.74 (1.04)	4.06 (1.11)

^a In the Japanese survey response options were totally healthy/relatively healthy/of average health/relatively not very healthy/not at all healthy.
^b Low scores indicate good health; excellent = 1 to poor = 5.
Note: Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. All characteristics are significantly different between countries, p < .001 determined by Chi squared or F-test.

ISSN: 1471-2458