Health expectancies in the older Thai population

Abstract

This study aims to investigate health expectancies in five domains: cognitive health, psychological health, physical health, functional ability and self-perceived global health (SPGH) in the older Thai population. There are few studies reporting health expectancies in multidimensional health domains, most of which reported only one health dimension. The dataset used was from the Bangkok Longitudinal Study by Siriraj Hospital for the Older Men and Women (BLOSSOM), which is a community cohort study in Bangkok, Thailand. This analysis is based on the cross-sectional data in the year 2005-2006 and includes 5936 participants aged 50 years and over from community settings within six suburban areas in Bangkok. The study found that women had a longer total life expectancy (LE), but had shorter cognitive impairment-free (CIFLE), physical illness-free (PHILE) and disability-free (DIFLE) LEs, than men. However, there was no difference between the life expectancies for living with good SPGH in men and in women. Differences in health expectations might explain this finding. Health promotion and disease prevention should be initiated at a younger age and should target all health domains. © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.