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Change in physical function among women as they age: findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health

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Abstract

Purpose

Decline in physical function is common in older age, with important consequences for health-related quality of life, health care utilisation, and mortality. This study aimed to identify patterns of change in physical functioning (PF) for women in later life.

Methods

PF was measured longitudinally using the ten-item subscale of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey, for 10 515 participants of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, who completed at least two surveys between 1999 (aged 73–78 years) and 2011 (aged 85–90 years). Conditional and unconditional latent profile analysis was conducted separately for deceased and surviving subgroups of women to uncover latent patterns of change in PF scores over time.

Results

Four patterns of change were identified for women who were still alive in 2011 (N = 5928), and four similar classes for deceased women (N = 4587): (1) ‘poor PF’ representing women with low PF scores, (2) ‘moderate PF’, (3) ‘high PF’, and (4) ‘very high PF’, where scores remained very high. All patterns exhibited a decrease in PF over time. Factors which predict low PF included sedentary levels of exercise, obese and overweight BMI, difficulty managing on income, and lower education.

Conclusions

The results provided evidence for a gradual decrease in PF for all women with age; however, there was no evidence for an increased rate of decline prior to death.

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Acknowledgments

This research was conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH), the University of Newcastle and the University of Queensland. We are grateful to the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing for funding, to the staff of ALSWH, and to the women who provided the survey data. Researchers in the Research Centre for Generational Health and Ageing at the University of Newcastle are members of the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), Newcastle. We acknowledge the assistance of the Data Linkage Unit at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) for undertaking the data linkage to the National Death Index (NDI). GDM is funded by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT120100812).

Funding

The ALSWH is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Gita D Mishra is funded by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT120100812). Lucy Leigh is a PhD Candidate receiving an Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre for Generational Health and Ageing, HMRI, C/-University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Lucy Leigh & Julie E. Byles

  2. Centre for Longitudinal and Life Course Research, School of Public Health, University of Queensland, Public Health Building, Herston Road, Herston, QLD, 4006, Australia

    Gita D. Mishra

Authors
  1. Lucy Leigh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucy Leigh.

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Conflict of interest

Lucy Leigh, Julie E Byles, Gita D Mishra declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures (surveys) performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Lucy Leigh and Julie E. Byles are joint first authors.

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Leigh, L., Byles, J.E. & Mishra, G.D. Change in physical function among women as they age: findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Qual Life Res 26, 981–991 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-016-1422-3

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