Importance of Physical Performance and Quality of Life for Self-Rated Health in Older Japanese Women

ABSTRACT

Our study aimed to investigate the physical performance and quality of life (QOL) as associated factors with self-rated health (SRH). Japanese community-dwelling women aged 65 years or more (n = 51; mean age = 75.3 ± 6.0) answered a questionnaire regarding socio-demographic information, SRH, QOL by the Short Form-8, and performed the physical tests, such as Timed Up and Go, Functional Reach (FR), One Leg Stand (OLS), Five Chair Stands (CS), and hand grip strength (HGS). Smoking (p = 0.04), more medical consultations (p = 0.03), and more number of medications (p = 0.001) were significantly associated with poor self-assessment of their health. Moreover, those who assessed their health condition as not so good to bad condition had lower performance in FR (p = 0.02), HGS (p = 0.04), OLS (p = 0.05), and CS (p = 0.02), and poorer QOL condition in general health (p < 0.01), bodily pain (p = 0.02), and vitality (p = 0.03) in comparison with the other SRH groups (good and/or normal). Therefore, we encouraged the use of the SRH assessment and the interpretation of its results based on the present findings such as associating the SRH of older women with their physical performance and QOL.

KEYWORDS. :

• Self-rated health
• physical performance
• quality of life
• older women