| 1. |
- Agahi, Neda, et al.
(författare)
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Smoking and Physical Inactivity as Predictors of Mobility Impairment During Late Life : Exploring Differential Vulnerability Across Education Level in Sweden
- 2018
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Ingår i: The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1079-5014 .- 1758-5368. ; 73:4, s. 675-683
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: To test whether older adults from high and low educational groups are differentially vulnerable to the impact of smoking and physical inactivity on the progression of mobility impairment during old age.Methods: A nationally representative sample of older Swedish adults (n = 1,311), aged 57-76 years at baseline (1991), were followed for up to 23 years (2014). Multilevel regression was used to estimate individual trajectories of mobility impairment over the study period and to test for differences in the progression of mobility impairment on the basis of smoking status, physical activity status, and level of education.Results: Compared to nonsmokers, heavy smokers had higher levels and steeper increases in mobility impairment with advancing age. However, there were only small and statistically nonsignificant differences in the impact of heavy smoking on mobility impairment in high versus low education groups. A similar pattern of results was found for physical inactivity.Discussion: Differential vulnerability to unhealthy behaviors may vary across populations, age, time-periods, and health outcomes. In this study of older adults in Sweden, low and high education groups did not differ significantly in their associations between heavy smoking or physical inactivity, and the progression of mobility impairment.
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| 2. |
- Allers, Katharina, et al.
(författare)
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Socioeconomic position and risk of unplanned hospitalization among nursing home residents : a nationwide cohort study
- 2021
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Ingår i: European Journal of Public Health. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1101-1262 .- 1464-360X. ; 31:3, s. 467-473
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Socioeconomic inequalities in health and healthcare use in old age have been on the rise during the past two decades. So far, it is unknown whether these inequalities have permeated the nursing home setting. This study aimed to assess whether the socioeconomic position of newly admitted nursing home residents had an influence on their risk of unplanned hospitalization. Methods: We identified older persons (similar to 75 years) who were newly admitted to a nursing home between March 2013 and December 2014 using a set of linked routinely collected administrative and healthcare data in Sweden. The number of unplanned hospitalizations for any cause and the cumulative length of stay were defined as primary outcomes. Unplanned hospitalizations for potentially avoidable causes (i.e. fall-related injuries, urinary tract infections, pneumonia and decubitus ulcers) were considered as our secondary outcome. Results: Among 40 545 newly admitted nursing home residents (mean age 86.8 years), the incidence rate of unplanned hospitalization ranged from 53.9 per 100 person-years among residents with tertiary education up to 55.1 among those with primary education. After adjusting for relevant confounders, we observed no meaningful difference in the risk of unplanned hospitalization according to the education level of nursing home residents (IRR for tertiary vs. primary education: 0.96, 95% CI 0.92-1.00) or to their level of income (IRR for highest vs. lowest quartile of income: 0.98, 0.95-1.02). There were also no differences in the cumulative length of hospital stays or in the risk of experiencing unplanned hospitalizations for potentially avoidable causes. Conclusions: In sum, in this large cohort of newly admitted nursing home residents, we found no evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in the risk of unplanned hospitalization.
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| 3. |
- Badache, Andreea C., 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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Why Are Old-Age Disabilities Decreasing in Sweden and Denmark? Evidence on the Contribution of Cognition, Education, and Sensory Functions
- 2022
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Ingår i: The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1079-5014 .- 1758-5368. ; 78:3, s. 483-495
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: Improvements in educational attainment, cognitive and sensory functions, and a decline in the prevalence of disabilities have been observed in older adults in Sweden and Denmark. In the present study, it was investigated whether better cognition, higher educational attainment, and improved sensory function among older adults aged 60 and older in these countries have contributed to decreasing rates of old-age disabilities.Methods: The analyses were based on repeated cross-sectional data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe for the 2004-2017 period. Descriptive data were used to benchmark the declining prevalence of disabilities, improving cognitive and sensory functions, and increased educational level. The association between time and disabilities was analyzed with logistic regression models, and the contribution of the improved cognitive function, education, and sensory function to the declining prevalence of old-age disabilities was estimated using the Karlson-Holm-Breen method for mediation analysis.Results: The analysis suggests that the declining prevalence of old-age disabilities in Sweden and Denmark between 2004 and 2017 can largely be attributed to improved cognitive function and vision and to a lesser extent by education and hearing ability.Discussion: These findings raise important questions about the causal mechanisms producing the associations between cognition, education, and sensory functions and disability in older age. Future studies should explore the causal nature of the associations between these mediators and old-age disabilities. In addition, they should explore whether these findings differ across regional and cultural contexts and over different time periods.
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| 4. |
- Badache, Andreea, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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Longitudinal associations between sensory and cognitive functioning in adults 60 years or older in Sweden and Denmark
- 2024
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Ingår i: Archives of gerontology and geriatrics (Print). - : Elsevier. - 0167-4943 .- 1872-6976. ; 121
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to explore the bidirectional, longitudinal associations between self-reported sensory functions (hearing/vision) and cognitive functioning among older adults in Sweden and Denmark during the period 2004-2017.METHODS: The study is based on data from The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and consists of 3164 persons aged 60 to 93 years. Within-person associations between sensory and cognitive functions were estimated using random intercept cross-lagged panel models.RESULTS: The results indicated that cognitive and sensory functions were associated within their respective domains over time. The results on the bidirectional associations between sensory functions and cognition over time showed weak and statistically non-significant estimates.CONCLUSION: Our study showed no clear evidence for cross-lagged effects between sensory functions and cognitive functioning. Important to note, however, is that using longitudinal data to estimate change within persons is a demanding statistical test and various factors may have contributed to the absence of conclusive evidence in our study. We discuss several of these factors.
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| 5. |
- Berndt, Hanna, et al.
(författare)
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Childhood living conditions, education and health among the oldest old in Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ageing & Society. - 0144-686X .- 1469-1779. ; 36:3, s. 631-648
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The objectives were to investigate the associations between social and financial living conditions in childhood, education and morbidity in old age. The study population (N = 591; 76+ years old) was assembled from two nationally representative Swedish surveys, in 1968 and 2011, that together made longitudinal analysis possible. Morbidity in old age comprised self-reported measures of musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disease, self-rated health and impaired mobility. There were no independent associations between adverse childhood living conditions and morbidity. However, adverse childhood living conditions were associated with an increased likelihood of low education. Moreover, low education was associated with a higher probability of health problems in old age. The results did not show any associations between adverse childhood conditions and late-life morbidity. However, adverse childhood conditions were associated with lower levels of education which, in turn, was associated with health problems and attrition from the study. These results suggest that adverse childhood conditions may indeed be associated with health and survival in old age, but mainly through mechanisms acting earlier in the lifecourse.
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| 6. |
- Chen, Tuo-Yu, et al.
(författare)
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Prevalence and Correlates of Falls Among Centenarians : Results from the Five-Country Oldest Old Project (5-COOP)
- 2020
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Ingår i: The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1079-5006 .- 1758-535X. ; 75:5, s. 974-979
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Many studies have been conducted to investigate risk factors of falls in older people, but little is known about falls among centenarians. We analyzed the cross-sectional data from the Five-Country Oldest Old Project (5-COOP) to investigate the prevalence and correlates of falls among centenarians. Methods: Data collection was carried out in 2011-2014 in Japan, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark. The sample consisted of 1,165 centenarians who were at least 100 years old in 2011. The outcome variable was falls in the past 6 months. Demographics, chronic conditions, pain, visual impairment, global cognitive function, dizziness and syncope, number of medications, functional limitation (ie, dressing, bathing, toileting, transferring, incontinence, and feeding), mobility difficulty, poor strength, and assistive device usage were included in the analysis. Results: The prevalence of falls within the last 6 months was 33.7%, ranging from 21.6% (Japan) to 40.9% (France). Being male, experiencing dizziness, syncope, incontinence, and using assistive devices indoors were associated with an increased risk of falls among centenarians. Significant cross-country differences in the relationships between some risk factors (ie, gender, difficulty with bathing, toileting, transferring, and feeding, and using assistive devices for walking indoors and outdoors) and falls were observed. Subsample analysis using data from each country also showed that factors related to falls were different. Conclusions: The prevalence of falls among centenarians is high and fall-related factors may be different than those for their younger counterparts. Given that centenarians is an emerging population, more studies investigating risk factors are needed to better understand falls among centenarians.
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| 7. |
- Darin-Mattsson, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
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Are Occupational Complexity and Socioeconomic Position Related to Psychological Distress 20 Years Later?
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Aging and Health. - : Sage Publications. - 0898-2643 .- 1552-6887. ; 27:7, s. 1266-1285
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: To assess occupational complexity in midlife in relation to psychological distress in older adulthood (69+ years) and explore the role of socioeconomic position.Method: Baseline data from the Swedish Level of Living Survey and follow-up data from the Swedish Longitudinal Study ofLiving Conditions of the Oldest Old were combined, resulting in 20+ years of follow-up. Data were analyzed using ordered logistic regressions.Results: Higher occupational complexity was associated with less psychological distress 20 years later adjusted for age, sex, follow-up year, hours worked the year before baseline, and psychological distress at baseline. Higher socioeconomic position yielded the same pattern of results. Socioeconomic position partially accounted for the association between occupational complexity and psychological distress.Discussion: With social gradient not easily amenable to modification, efforts to increase engagement at work may offer a viable option to attenuate the influence of work environment on psychological distress later in life.
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| 8. |
- Darin-Mattsson, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
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Different indicators of socioeconomic status and their relative importance as determinants of health in old age
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal for Equity in Health. - : BioMed Central. - 1475-9276. ; 16:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Socioeconomic status has been operationalised in a variety of ways, most commonly as education, social class, or income. In this study, we also use occupational complexity and a SES-index as alternative measures of socioeconomic status. Studies show that in analyses of health inequalities in the general population, the choice of indicators influence the magnitude of the observed inequalities. Less is known about the influence of indicator choice in studies of older adults. The aim of this study is twofold: i) to analyse the impact of the choice of socioeconomic status indicator on the observed health inequalities among older adults, ii) to explore whether different indicators of socioeconomic status are independently associated with health in old age.Methods: We combined data from two nationally representative Swedish surveys, providing more than 20 years of follow-up. Average marginal effects were estimated to compare the association between the five indicators of SES, and three late-life health outcomes: mobility limitations, limitations in activities of daily living (ADL), and psychological distress.Results: All socioeconomic status indicators were associated with late-life health; there were only minor differences in the effect sizes. Income was most strongly associated to all indicators of late-life health, the associations remained statistically significant when adjusting for the other indicators. In the fully adjusted models, education contributed to the model fits with 0-3% (depending on the outcome), social class with 0-1%, occupational complexity with 1-8%, and income with 3-18%.Conclusions: Our results indicate overlapping properties between socioeconomic status indicators in relation to late-life health. However, income is associated to late-life health independently of all other variables. Moreover, income did not perform substantially worse than the composite SES-index in capturing health variation. Thus, if the primary objective of including an indicator of socioeconomic status is to adjust the model for socioeconomic differences in late-life health rather than to analyse these inequalities per se, income may be the preferable indicator. If, on the other hand, the primary objective of a study is to analyse specific aspects of health inequalities, or the mechanisms that drive health inequalities, then the choice of indicator should be theoretically guided.
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| 9. |
- Enroth, Linda, et al.
(författare)
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Are there educational disparities in health and functioning among the oldest old? Evidence from the Nordic countries
- 2019
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Ingår i: European Journal of Ageing. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1613-9372 .- 1613-9380. ; 16:4, s. 415-424
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With the ageing of the population and recent pressures on important welfare state arrangements, updated knowledge on the linkage between socioeconomic status and health in old age is pertinent for shedding light on emerging patterns of health inequalities in the Nordic countries. This study examined self-rated health (SRH), mobility and activities of daily living (ADL) according to level of education in the three oldest old age groups 75-84, 85-94, and 95+, in four Nordic countries. Altogether, 6132 individuals from Danish Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Norwegian Life Course, Ageing and Generation study, Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old, the 5-Country Oldest Old (Sweden) and Vitality 90 + Study were analysed. First, associations of education level with SRH, mobility, and ADL were estimated for each individual study by means of age- and gender-adjusted logistic regression. Second, results from individual studies were synthesized in a meta-analysis. Older adults with higher education level were more likely to report good SRH, and they were more often independent in mobility and ADL than those with basic education when all age groups were combined. In mobility and ADL, differences between education groups remained stable across the age groups but for SRH, differences seemed to be weaker in older ages. With only a few exceptions, in all age groups, individuals with higher education had more favourable health and functioning than those with basic education. This study shows remarkable persistence of health and functioning inequalities in the Nordic countries throughout later life.
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| 10. |
- Ericsson, Malin Christina, et al.
(författare)
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Validation of abridged mini-mental state examination scales using population-based data from Sweden and USA
- 2017
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Ingår i: European Journal of Ageing. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1613-9372 .- 1613-9380. ; 14:2, s. 199-205
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The objective of this study is to validate two abridged versions of the mini-mental state examination (MMSE): one intended for use in face-to-face interviews, and the other developed for telephonic interviews, using data from Sweden and the US to validate the abridged scales against dementia diagnoses as well as to compare their performance to that of the full MMSE scale. The abridged versions were based on eight domains from the original MMSE scale. The domains included in the MMSE-SF were registration, orientation, delayed recall, attention, and visual spatial ability. In the MMSE-SF-C, the visual spatial ability item was excluded, and instead, one additional orientation item was added. There were 794 participants from the Swedish HARMONY study [mean age 81.8 (4.8); the proportion of cognitively impaired was 51 %] and 576 participants from the US ADAMS study [mean age 83.2 (5.7); the proportion of cognitively impaired was 65 %] where it was possible to compare abridged MMSE scales to dementia diagnoses and to the full MMSE scale. We estimated the sensitivity and specificity levels of the abridged tests, using clinical diagnoses as reference. Analyses with both the HARMONY and the ADAMS data indicated comparable levels of sensitivity and specificity in detecting cognitive impairment for the two abridged scales relative to the full MMSE. Receiver operating characteristic curves indicated that the two abridged scales corresponded well to those of the full MMSE. The two abridged tests have adequate validity and correspond well with the full MMSE. The abridged versions could therefore be alternatives to consider in larger population studies where interview length is restricted, and the respondent burden is high.
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