[Shift in the self-perceived health of 55-64-year olds between 1992 and 2002]

Self-perceived health describes how a person perceives his or her own health. It is a widely used measure of health status. The aim of this study is to investigate the stability of self-perceived health between 1992/'93 and 2002/'03 of men and women aged 55-64 and to what extent a possible shift can be explained by demographic factors, lifestyle factors and objective health.

Data of two age-, sex- and region-stratified samples are used from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), an ongoing cohort study in a population-based sample of older persons in the Netherlands. Self-perceived health is defined by the answer to the following question: How would you rate your health in general? with possible answers: 1 = excellent, 2 = good, 3 = fair, 4 = sometimes good/sometimes poor and 5 = poor. In the analyses, answers 4 and 5 are combined because of the small number of answers in the category 'poor'. The difference in self-perceived health between the two cohorts is tested using the chi2-test. Multinomial regression analyses are used to examine which cohort and/or period factors are responsible for the cohort difference.

The youngest cohort rated more excellent and poor health than the oldest, and less good and fair health. The youngest cohort had a higher prevalence of chronic illness, functional limitation and depressive symptoms, which negatively affected self-perceived health. The cohort and period factors do not significantly contribute to the explanation of the cohort difference.

There is a small shift in self-perceived health over time. In comparison with the oldest cohort the self-perceived health of the youngest improved, taken the deteriorated objective health of the youngest cohort into account.