Objective: To describe the health status of a population over 60 years and to study their relationship with several socio-demographic variables.
Design: A cross-sectional study, population based.
Settings: A community.
Participants: A randomized sample of 1,103 non institutionalized people over 60 years living in the city of Cordoba (Spain).
Measurements and main results: By mean of a personal interview at home we used the OARS-MFAQ-VE questionnaire. Low self-rated health was associated with the age, to be female sex, a low cultural background, and a low income. Only 5.2% of the study people do not suffered any illness and 56% state that their health problems are major problems for doing their current activities. 4.9% declared to have some degree of physical incapacity. 3.7% of elderly population has an important cognitive deficit.
Conclusions: The majority of elderly people has good health. Age is related with a poor health. Women have more health problems than men.