Aim: To assess the association between self-reported health (SRH) and mortality from all-causes, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer, in adults 65 years and older in Spain.
Methods: We analysed data of 894 adults (504 women, 390 men) aged 65 years and above from two population-based studies, the EUREYE-Spain study and the Valencia Nutritional Survey (VNS). SRH was assessed at baseline using a single question which is widely used in epidemiological studies: "Overall, how would you consider your health at present?" and the response options were: 1. Very good, 2. Good, 3. Fair, 4. Poor, 5. Very poor. Deaths were ascertained during a 12-year follow-up period, and we used Cox proportional hazards regression models to obtain adjusted hazard ratios (HR).
Results: During the 12 years of follow-up (8566.2 person-years), we observed 400 deaths, 158 (39.5%) due to CVD and 89 (22.3%) due to cancer. Fair and poor/very poor SRH were significantly associated with higher all-cause mortality after 12-years of follow-up, HR = 1.29 (95% CI, 1.03-1.61) and HR 1.53 (95% CI, 1.09-2.15), respectively. We observed evidence of higher CVD mortality among those who reported fair and poor/very poor SRH, although the association was attenuated and lost statistical significance in the fully adjusted models.
Conclusion: This study suggests that a poor SRH status is associated with a higher all-cause mortality risk among older adults in Spain. Checking SHR status may be useful to plan health care in older adults.