Secular Trends in Self-Assessed Health Over 24 Years Among 38-, 50-, 70- and 75-Year-Old Women: Observations from the Prospective Population Study of Women in Gothenburg

Figures & data

Table 1 Year of the Study, Year of Birth, Ages, Participant Rates as Well as Number of SF-36 Survey Completed at Each Follow-Up, from 1992–1993 to 2016–2017

Year of Study	Ages	Invited Women n	Non-Participants/ Unreachable and Language Difficulties n	SF 36 Form Completed n (%)
1992–1993	70	473	183	290 (61)
	50	127	28	99 (78)
	38	92	24	68 (74)
Total		692	235	457 (66)
2000–2001	70	423	171	252 (60)
Total		423	171	252 (60)
2004–2005	50	505	216	289 (57)
	38	343	139	204 (60)
2005–2006	75	423	185	238 (56)
Total		1271	540	731 (58)
2016–2017	50	523	216	307 (59)
	38	515	253	262 (51)
Total		1038	469	569 (55)
Total
1992–2017		3424		2009 (59)

Table 2 Secular Trends in Self-Assessed Health, Selected Subcategories Among 38-, 50-, 70–75-Year-Old Women from 1992–1993 to 2017–2017

38 Years	Year of Birth	n	M	95% CI	p
Social functioning	1954	69	91.5	87.7–95.3	0.001
	1966	202	85.6	82.6–88.6
	1978	262	81.3	78.6–83.8
Mental health	1954	69	78.3	74.3–82.4	0.012
	1966	201	76.3	73.7–78.9
	1978	262	72.4	70.4–74.5
Vitality	1954	69	66.7	62.0–71.5	<0.0001
	1966	201	60.5	57.5–63.5
	1978	262	53.4	50.9–55.9
General health	1954	69	82	77.7–86.3	<0.0001
	1966	201	78.5	75.9–81.1
	1978	261	71.8	69.5–74.2
Mental component summary	1954	68	48.8	46.3–51.3	0.001
	1966	199	46.5	44.9–48
	1978	255	43.7	42.4–45.1
50 years
Physical functioning	1942	99	83.5	79.4–87.7	0.002
	1954	289	87.8	85.6–89.8
	1966	306	90.2	88.6–91.7
Vitality	1942	99	64.6	59.8–69.4	0.011
	1954	287	60.6	58.0–63.2
	1966	305	57.0	54.4–59.7
70–75 years
Physical role	1922	285	68.7	8.4 (2.1-14.7)	0.009
	1930	248	77.1
Emotional role	1922	285	72.9	9.7 (3.6-15.6)	0.002
	1930	246	82.6

Table 3 All Variables That Significantly Affect the Outcome of SF-36 in the Respective Subcategory in 38-, 50- and 70-Year Olds

		PF	RP	SF	MH	RE	VT	GH	MCS
38 years
Mental stress	Never			+12.4	+14.0		+19.7	+14.0	+8.0
	Sometimes			+8.5	+11.0		+16.9	+12.0	+5.8
	Regularly			0	0		0	0	0
Smoking daily	No							0
	Yes							−9.3
Drinking beer	Never			−6.3
	Sometimes			+3.6
	Regularly			0
50 years
Physical activity	Inactive						−25.0
	4h/w						−16.0
	Regularly						−11.0
	Hard						0
Mental stress	Never	+3.7					+17.0
	Sometimes	+1.0					+13.1
	Regularly	0					0
Education	Elementary	−7.3
	Secondary	−1.9
	University	0
SES	Low	0
	Middle	+2.5
	High	+5.1
BMI	With each increased unit	−0.84
Drinking beer	Never	−1.8
	Sometimes	+2.0
	Regularly	0
70 years
Physical activity	Inactive		−55,9			−39.7
	4h/w		−28.7			−13.1
	Regularly		−11.2			−7.2
	Hard		0			0
Mental stress	Never		+16.6			+22.8
	Sometimes		+0.6			+12.5
	Regularly		0			0
BMI	With each increased unit		−1.1

Notes: Zero indicates reference value. Positive numbers indicate an increase in the number of points relative to the reference value. Negative numbers indicate a decrease in the number of points relative to the reference value.

Abbreviations: SF, social function; MH, mental health; VT, vitality; GH, general health; MCS, mental component summary.

Figure 1 How the different variables significantly affect the outcome of SF-36 in the respective subcategory in 38-, 50- and 70-year olds. Mental stress, one bar includes mental stress levels 0 and 1, two bars include mental stress level 2 and three bars include mental stress levels 3, 4 and 5. Beer drinking, crossed bottle includes drinking levels 0, 1 and 2, one bottle includes drinking levels 3 and 4, a beer crate includes drinking levels 5 and 6. Education, one bar includes education elementary school, two bars include upper secondary school and three bars include university. Zero indicates reference value. Positive numbers indicate an increase in the number of points relative to the reference value. Negative numbers indicate a decrease in the number of points relative to the reference value.

Abbreviations: SF, social function; MH, mental health; VT, vitality; GH, general health; MCS, mental component summary; PF, physical functioning; RP, physical role; RE, emotional role.