The proposed project will build on our 1988-1991 study of the oldest-old in Israel (R01 AG0 5885-02) which established a baseline assessment of health and functional status, health care utilization, subjective well- being, and socio-familial network in a multi-cultural framework. The random stratified sample consisted of approximately 3,000 subjects aged 75 and over chosen from the Central Population Register. In addition, all 850 kibbutz residents in the country aged 85+ and a sample aged 75-84 were similarly studied. Our objective is to correlate baseline socio- demographic, health, and functional status to determine in this population factors affecting mortality, institutionalization, and functional impairment by following up these subjects longitudinally.
Our aims are: 1) to determine factors affecting mortality, institutionalization, and functional impairment among the oldest-old in Israel; 2) to determine whether the elderly from different ethnic groups in Israel (European/American, Asian/African, Israeli born) have different patterns of mortality, institutionalization, and functional impairment; 3) to determine to what extent the supportive environment of the kibbutz (social support, economic security, physical activity) contributes to a decrease in mortality, institutionalization, and functional impairment; and 4) to determine whether older holocaust survivors have lower age- specific rates of mortality, institutionalization, and functional impairment than those who left Europe before 1939. To accomplish this, we will locate the original members of the study and reinterview either them or their survivors three to five years after the original interview. The original sample will be followed up, and mortality, institutionalization, and predictors of """"""""successful aging"""""""" (i.e. health functioning) will be explored. Mortality and institutionalization will be determined from publicly available national data bases, using previously tested methods.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 20 publications
