Gender-Specific Associations between Late-Life Disability and Socioeconomic Status: Findings from the International Mobility and Aging Study (IMIAS)

Luana Caroline de Assunção Cortez Corrêa (), Cristiano dos Santos Gomes, Saionara Maria Aires da Camara, Juliana Fernandes de Souza Barbosa, Ingrid Guerra Azevedo, Afshin Vafaei and Ricardo Oliveira Guerra
Additional contact information
Luana Caroline de Assunção Cortez Corrêa: Department of Physical Therapy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal 59078-140, Brazil
Cristiano dos Santos Gomes: Department of Physical Therapy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal 59078-140, Brazil
Saionara Maria Aires da Camara: Department of Physical Therapy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal 59078-140, Brazil
Juliana Fernandes de Souza Barbosa: Department of Physical Therapy, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife 50670-901, Brazil
Ingrid Guerra Azevedo: Departamento de Procesos Terapéuticos, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Catolica de Temuco, Temuco 4813302, Chile
Afshin Vafaei: School of Health Studies, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
Ricardo Oliveira Guerra: Department of Physical Therapy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal 59078-140, Brazil

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: Disability is a dynamic process and can be influenced by a sociocultural environment. This study aimed to determine whether the associations between socioeconomic status and late-life disability differ by gender in a multi-sociocultural sample from different countries. A cross-sectional study was developed with 1362 older adults from The International Mobility in Aging Study. Late-life disability was measured through the disability component of the Late-Life Function Disability Instrument. Level of education, income sufficiency and lifelong occupation were used as indicators of SES. The results indicated that a low education level β = −3.11 [95% CI −4.70; −1.53] and manual occupation β = −1.79 [95% −3.40; −0.18] were associated with frequency decrease for men, while insufficient income β = −3.55 [95% CI −5.57; −1.52] and manual occupation β = −2.25 [95% CI −3.89; −0.61] played a negative role in frequency for women. For both men β = −2.39 [95% −4.68; −0.10] and women β = −3.39 [95% −5.77; −1.02], insufficient income was the only factor associated with greater perceived limitation during life tasks. This study suggested that men and women had different late-life disability experiences. For men, occupation and education were associated with a decrease in the frequency of participation, while for women this was associated with income and occupation. Income was associated with perceived limitation during daily life tasks for both genders.

Keywords: disability; socioeconomic status; older adults; gender; population-based study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/2789/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/2789/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:2789-:d:1058010

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().