Measurement of Gender Differences in Disability and Care

人口预测表明，中东的人口老龄化迫在眉睫，而寿命方面的性别差异意味着，这些日益增长的老年人口中越来越多的是女性。有充分的证据表明，其他年龄段的女性生存前景较差。 与该地区的男性相比，获得医疗保健的机会更少。由于人们对老年人的总体情况知之甚少，这种差异在晚年生活中持续存在的程度仍有待研究。 一个相关的关切是，该区域和其他发展中区域以前用来评估老年人健康状况和服务使用情况的工具没有在这些文化中得到充分的测试。调查工具的有效性和可靠性与实质性的 与关于性别差异的实质性问题有关，因为众所周知，在其他地方，自我报告的健康状况和获得护理的机会的有效性和可靠性因性别而异。因此，在探讨性别与中东老年人健康状况和服务使用的关系之前，需要对相关工具的使用进行验证 在这种情况下。这个试点项目的目的是在埃及一个有代表性的非制度化老年人样本上测试问卷的有效性和可靠性，这些问卷通常被用来衡量类似人群的健康状况和服务使用情况。 工业化环境。这项研究的具体目标是： 1.确定在埃及弱势老年人群体中进行家庭体能测试的可行性， 2.(A)评估关于该人群功能受限的自我报告数据的有效性； (B)按性别比较自我报告的功能限制的有效性， 3.(A)评估关于该人群其他健康状况和保健服务使用情况的自我报告的可靠性；以及 (B)按性别比较其他健康状况自我报告和服务使用情况的可靠性。 该项目的地点将是埃及的米尼亚，一个公共使用的数据集将在适当的时候提供，以便其他研究人员可以在该研究人群中检查有关健康和老龄化的其他问题。 这项研究将解决有关健康访谈调查在欠发达环境中收集老年人(这里定义为年龄大于或等于50岁)的信息的效用的重要方法问题。在发展中地区率先获得认证 这项研究旨在衡量工业化国家老年人口的健康状况和服务使用情况，这项研究将回答有关这些工具跨文化适用性的长期问题。在这样做的过程中，调查结果将表明现有的关于其他发展中国家老年人口健康状况和服务使用情况的自我报告数据的准确性和可靠性，在这些国家，在未经事先验证的情况下实施了类似的工具。这些发现还可能为今后对全球疾病负担估计的修订提供参考，发展中国家几乎没有提供可靠的信息。最后，对推动该项目的方法学问题的回答将使研究小组能够开发设计良好的数据收集工具和程序，以便在随后对差异的水平和决定因素进行研究时使用。 埃及和其他中东地区老年人健康状况和现代保健使用方面的性别问题。

Demographic projections indicate that populating aging is imminent in the Middle East, and sex differences in longevity mean that these growing older populations increasingly consist of women. It is well documented that females at other ages have poorer survival prospects and less access to health care compared to males in the region. Because little is known about older adults in general, the extent to which such disparities persist in later life remains unexplored. A related concern is that instruments previously used in this and other developing regions to assess health status and use of services among older adults have not been adequately tested in these cultures. The validity and reliability of survey instruments are relevant to substantive are relevant to substantive questions about gender differences, given that the validity and reliability of self-reported health status and access to care are known to differ by gender elsewhere.. Therefore, prior to exploring the relationship of gender to health status and service use among older adults in the Middle East, relevant instruments need to be validate for use in this setting. The purpose of this pilot project is to test on a representative sample of non-institutionalized older adults in Egypt the validity and reliability of questionnaires that have routinely been used to measure health status and service use among similar populations in industrialized settings. The specific goals of this study are to: 1. determine the feasibility of conducting home-based tests of physical performance in a disadvantaged population of older adults in Egypt, 2. (a) assess the validity of self-reported data on functional limitation in this population, (b) compare the validity of self reported functional limitation by gender, 3. (a) assess the reliability of self-reports of other health conditions and use of health services in this population, and (b) compare the reliability of self-reports of other health conditions and of use of services by gender. The project site will be Minia, Egypt, and a public use dataset will be made available in due course so that fellow researchers can examine other questions about health and aging in this study population. This study will address important methodological questions about the utility of health interview surveys to gather information on older adults (defined here as age greater than or equal too 50 years) in less developed settings. Being among the first to validate in a developing region instruments that were designed to measure health status and service use among older populations in industrialized countries, this study will answer long-standing questions about the cross-cultural applicability of these instruments. In doing so, findings will provide an indication of the accuracy and reliability of existing self-reported data on health status and service use among older populations in other developing countries where similar instruments have been administered without prior validation. Findings may also inform future revisions to estimates of the global burden of disease, for which little reliable information has been available from developing countries. Finally, answers to the methodological questions that motivate this project will enable the study team to develop well-designed instruments and procedures for data collection to be used in subsequent studies of the level and determinants of differences by gender in health status and use of modern health care at older ages in Egypt and other Middle Eastern settings.