Relationship between Economic Security and Self-Rated Health in Elderly Japanese Residents Living Alone.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between economic security and self-rated health for elderly Japanese residents living alone.

DESIGN: A secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study.

SETTING: N City, H. Prefecture, Japan.

PARTICIPANTS: Survey questionnaires were distributed to 2,985 elderly residents living alone, aged ≥70 years, of which, 1,939 (65.0%) were returned and treated as valid responses.

MEASUREMENTS: The survey included questions about gender, age, number of years spent in N City, self-rated health, economic security, number of years spent living alone, reason for living alone, life satisfaction, cooking frequency, frequency of seeing a doctor, long-term care service usage, as well as whether they enjoyed their lives, participated in social organizations.

RESULTS: Of the respondents, 1,563 (80.6%) reported that they were economically secure, and 376 (19.4%) responded that they were insecure. The odds ratio predicting poor self-rated health for the economically insecure participants was significantly high (odds ratio: 3.19, 95%, Confidence Interval (CI): 2.53-4.02, and P < 0.001). Similarly, the adjusted odds ratio for poor self-rated health was significantly high for the economically insecure participants in multivariate analyses controlling for factors such as age, gender, cooking frequency, and social participation (adjusted odds ratio: 2.21, 95%, CI: 1.70-2.88, and P < 0.001). Furthermore, a similar trend was observed in stratified analyses based on gender and age groups.

CONCLUSION: Economic security predicted self-rated health independently of confounders, including social participation and cooking frequency, among the elderly Japanese living alone in communities.