Comparing factors concerning lifestyle associated with health status and mortality among elderly people across communities

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We have started follow-up studies on health status and lifestyle among nonistitutionalized elderly people 65 years of age and over in an urban community, a rural community and a mountainous community. With regard to the baseline survey, we compared associations between lifestyle and health status across these communities. The main findings were as follows :1. In comparison with the urban community, impaired physical health status (physical activities of daily livings, instrumental activities of daily livings) and intimate social networks (contact with relatives, friendship, contact with neighbors, involvement with group activities) were more frequent in the rural community. There were less elderly people spending their daily lives vacantly in the rural community. Social networks developed in the rural community may enable elderly people to spend their daily lives actively and may have disabled elderly people live in their community.2. The associations between life satisfaction and social networks were examined in the sample of the rural community. Life satisfaction was positively associated with social networks in both sexed. The associations with individual social network items were different between men and women. In men, networks of family members in the yound-old and networks of community members in the oldest-old were associated. In women, involvement with group activities was associated in both age groups.3. In the rural area, psychological wellbeing was measured with General Health Questionnaire(GHQ) and its associations with physical health status and social networks were examined. Impaired subjective physical health status was associated with GHQ high score, which means impaired psychological wellbeing. After adjusting for subjective physical health status, having neither jobs nor roles and lack of social networks of community members were associated with GHQ high score.