OBJECTIVES

: To understand how age and gender may impact physical, functional, and mental health are critical in formulating sophisticated personalized care plan, particularly in the aging society. Previous studies have shown that women may have more disabilities in physical measures than men, but how other health-related measures were influenced by both gender and age was not further studied. This study thus aimed to investigate the self-reported physical, functional, and mental health among different age-gender groups in Taiwan.

METHODS

: Data of 1550 study subjects from the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (SEBAS), Taiwan were retrieved for analysis and all subjects were divided into four groups based on their age (middle aged: 53 to 64, the elderly: 65 and above) and gender. Multiple logistic regression models were adopted to investigate the associations between gender and self-reported disabilities of physical function, daily activity disabilities (activities of daily living, or ADL, and instrumental activities of daily living, or IADL) and depression.

RESULTS

: The adjusted multiple logistic regression models presented elder women were at the highest risk in self-reported difficulties of physical movement (aOR 6.59 [4.10-10.59], p<0.01) and difficulties of IADL (aOR 7.76 [4.63-12.98], p<0.01) compared to middle-aged men. This association was also perceived in the elderly subgroup, in which women were associated with a 2-fold increase in risk of self-reported difficulties of physical movement (aOR 2.69 [1.62-4.48], p<0.01) and a 3-fold increase in risk of an IADL disability (aOR 3.43 [2.25-5.25], p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

: This study revealed both middle-aged and elderly women were significantly more likely to have worse self-reported physical and functional health than men in the same age group in Taiwan.