Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Early Life Conditions and Rapid Demographic Changes in the Developing World pp 69–104Cite as

Data Sources, Measures, Validity, and a Description of the Older Adult Population

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 656 Accesses

Abstract

The degree to which analyses of the determinants of health using surveys of older adults are relevant hinges partially on the quality of the data – the degree to which the data accurately reflect the older adult population across countries and the degree to which the data are valid. Although there are limitations, the data are consistent with what is already about known about the older adult population and about associations between adult chronic conditions and related health conditions; thus inferences can be made.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See Appendix C (RELATE, 2013) for more details.

  2. 2.

    Raghunathan, Reiter, and Rubin (2003), Raghunathan, Solenberger, and Van Hoewyk (2007), Royston (2004, 2006), Rubin (1987), Van Buren, Boshuizen, and Knook (1999).

  3. 3.

    Weinstein and Goldman (2003), page 18.

  4. 4.

    Mehrotra and Jolly (1997).

  5. 5.

    Anderson and Silver (1986) and Prokhorov (2005–2009).

  6. 6.

    McEniry, Moen, and McDermott (2013).

  7. 7.

    Palloni, McEniry, Wong, and Peláez (2007).

  8. 8.

    López-Alonso (2007).

  9. 9.

    Preston (1976); see also McEniry (2009c).

  10. 10.

    A more suitable measure would have been questions regarding the educational attainment of the respondent’s father or mother. An in sufficient number of countries in the sample collected data on parental education. Where available in the cross-national data, rural birthplace was strongly associated with lower educational attainment. Thus, birthplace was used as a proxy for low parental SES. The limitations of using rural/urban birthplace are that it is very broad and there may be important rural and urban differences in epidemiology environment which confound the meaning of rural birthplace.

  11. 11.

    Food and Agriculture Organization of United States (1946).

  12. 12.

    McEniry, Palloni, Dávila, and García (2008).

  13. 13.

    Smoking was defined as only cigarette smoking for England, US-HRS, US-WLS, Puerto Rico-PREHCO (100 cigarettes or more), Taiwan, Mexico-MHAS, and China-CHNS. In the remaining countries, smoking was defined in the following manner:

    • Netherlands: Respondent smoked cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, or a pipe daily for at least one year.

    • SABE cities: General smoking question. Follow-up question asks about number of cigarettes, cigars, or pipes smoked per day.

    • Costa Rica: Respondent smoked more than 100 cigarettes or cigars during his/her lifetime.

    • SAGE countries: Respondent smoked tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, snuff, or smokeless tobacco.

      • Bangladesh: Respondent smoke hookah, biri, cigarettes, or cigars.

      • China-CLHLS: General smoking question.

      • Indonesia: Respondent smoked cigarettes or cigars.

    Exercises refers to the percent of respondents who indicated that they participate in some type of exercise. In US-HRS, SABE cities, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Mexico-MHAS, this is defined as vigorous physical activity (including sports, heavy work, or other physical work) three or more times a week. In the Netherlands, England, and US-WLS, this is defined as vigorous physical activity, without a specified timeframe. In the remaining countries, exercise was defined in the following manner:

    • SAGE countries: Respondent participates in vigorous-intensity activity that causes large increases in breathing or heart rate (e.g., heavy lifting, digging, chopping wood) for at least 10 min continuously.

      • Taiwan: Respondent participates in exercise (not defined further).

      • Bangladesh: Survey does not ask about exercise behaviors.

      • China-CLHLS: The type or degree of exercise is not specified in survey.

    • China-CHNS: Respondent participates in heavy or very heavy physical activities during the work day in a week (e.g., farmer, athlete, dancer, steel worker, lumber worker, mason, etc.).

      • Indonesia: Survey does not ask about exercise behaviors.

  14. 14.

    Drinks refers to the percent of respondents who indicated that they drink alcoholic beverages. The timeframes for drinking habits varied, anywhere from drinking in the last 3 months (SABE cities, Puerto Rico), the last 6 months (Netherlands, Taiwan), the last year (England, China-CHNS), to anytime in their lifetime (US-HRS, US-WLS, Costa Rica, Mexico-MHAS). In the remaining countries, drinks was defined in the following manner:

    • SAGE countries: Respondent drank an alcoholic beverage in their lifetime (past drinker) or in the last 30 days (present drinker).

      • Bangladesh: Survey does not ask about drinking behaviors.

      • China-CLHLS: Respondent drinks alcohol at present or drank alcohol in the past.

      • Indonesia: Survey does not ask about drinking behaviors.

  15. 15.

    Visits to a doctor refers to the percent of respondents who indicated that they visited a medical doctor at least once in the previous year. The Indonesian survey included any visits in a 5-year time period.

  16. 16.

    McEniry (2008) and RELATE (2013).

  17. 17.

    See McEniry, Moen, and McDermott (2013).

  18. 18.

    Rose (1962) and Rose et al. (1977).

  19. 19.

    McDowell (2006).

  20. 20.

    McEniry (2008).

  21. 21.

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2012).

  22. 22.

    Katz and Akpom (1976).

  23. 23.

    Nagi (1976).

  24. 24.

    Bergman et al. (2007) and Rockwood and Mitnitski (2007).

  25. 25.

    Smith, Branch, and Scherr (1990).

  26. 26.

    Stump, Clark, Johnson, and Wolinsky (1977), Wray, Herzog, and Park (1996), and Wray and Lynch (1998).

  27. 27.

    Pluijm et al. (2005).

  28. 28.

    Kuder and Richardson (1937).

  29. 29.

    See McEniry (2011a) for more detail.

  30. 30.

    Palloni and McEniry analyses carried out during 2007.

  31. 31.

    Take the example of Puerto Rico (Clark, 1930).

  32. 32.

    See for example Case and Paxson (2010), Davis-Kean (2005), Kuh and Wadsworth (1989).

  33. 33.

    See for example Fernós Isern (1932, n.d.), Garrido Morales (1935, 1941), Ortiz (1927, 1931), and US Census Bureau (1932).

  34. 34.

    Palloni, McEniry, Dávila, and García Gurucharri (2005).

  35. 35.

    Kuh and Ben-Shlomo (2004).

  36. 36.

    Sample sizes less than or equal to 20 in any age group were omitted from the graphs.

  37. 37.

    Rose (1962).

  38. 38.

    Baker, Stabile, and Deri (2004), Banks et al. (2006a, 2006b), Beckett, Weinstein, Goldman, and Yu-Hsuan (2000), and Goldman, Lin, Weinstein, and Lin (2003).

  39. 39.

    See Brenes (2008) but also Andrade (2008).

  40. 40.

    Brenes (2008).

  41. 41.

    He, Muenchrath, and Kowal (2012).

  42. 42.

    For examples of ethnicity in different surveys see RELATE (2013).

  43. 43.

    For height and knee height see Eveleth and Tanner (1990), Gunnell, Davey Smith, Holly, and Frankel (1998), and for season of birth see Doblhammer (2004).

  44. 44.

    McEniry, Moen, and McDermott (2013), McEniry (2012).

References

  • Ahmad, O. B., Boschi-Pinto, C., López, A. D., Murray, C. J. L., Lozano, R., & Inoue, M. (2001). Age standardization of rates: A new WHO standard (GPE Discussion Paper Series: No. 31). Geneva: WHO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. A., & Silver, B. D. (1986). Infant mortality in the Soviet Union: Regional differences and measurement issues. Population and Development Review, 12, 705–738.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrade, F. (2008). Misreported diabetes: Estimating the ‘real’ burden of diabetes in Latin America and the Caribbean (Working Paper). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois-Champaign.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, M., Stabile, M., & Deri, C. (2004). What do self-reported, objective, measures of health measure? Journal of Human Resources, 39, 1067–1093.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, J., Marmot, M., Oldfield, Z., & Smith, J. (2006a). Disease and disadvantage in the United States and in England. Journal of the American Medical Association, 295(17), 2037–2045.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, J., Marmot, M., Oldfield, Z., & Smith, J. P. (2006b). The SES health gradient on both sides of the Atlantic (Working Paper 12674) (www.nber.org/papers/w12674). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

  • Beckett, M., Weinstein, M., Goldman, N., & Yu-Hsuan, L. (2000). Do health interview surveys yield reliable data on chronic illness among older respondents? American Journal of Epidemiology, 151(3), 315–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, H., Ferrucci, L., Guralnik, J., Hogan, D. B., Hummel, S., Karunananthan, S., et al. (2007). Frailty: An emerging research and clingical paradigm—Issues and controversies. Journal of Gerontology, 62A(7), 731–737.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brenes, G. (2008). The effect of early life events on the burden of diabetes mellitus among Costa Rican elderly: estimates and projections. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

    Google Scholar 

  • Case, A., & Paxson, C. (2010). Causes and consequences of early-life health. Demography, 47(Suppl), S65–S85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CDC. (2012). Defining overweight and obesity. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/defining.html. Accessed 2013.

  • Clark, V. S. (1930). Porto Rico and its problems. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis-Kean, P. E. (2005). The influence of parent education and family income on child achievement: The indirect role of parental expectations and the home environment. Journal of Family Psychology, 19(2), 294–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doblhammer, G. (2004). The late life legacy of very early life. Berlin, Germany: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Eveleth, P. B., & Tanner, J. M. (1990). Worldwide variation in human growth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernós Isern, A. (1932). Report of the commissioner of health of Porto Rico for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931, to the governor of Porto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Bureau of Supplies, Printing and Transportation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernós Isern, A. (n.d.). Report of the Commissioner of health to the hon. Governor of Puerto Rico for the fiscal year 1942–43. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Bureau of Supplies, Printing and Transportation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (1946). World food survey. Washington, DC: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrido Morales, E. (1935). Report of the commissioner of health of Puerto Rico to the governor of Puerto Rico for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1935. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Bureau of Supplies, Printing and Transportation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrido Morales, E. (1941). Report of the commissioner of health to the hon. Governor of Puerto Rico for the fiscal year 1939–40. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Bureau of Supplies, Printing and Transportation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman, N., Lin, I., Weinstein, M., & Lin, Y. (2003). Evaluating the quality of self-reports of hypertension and diabetes. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 56, 148–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunnell, D. J., Davey Smith, G., Holly, J. M. P., & Frankel, S. (1998). Leg length and risk of cancer in the Boyd Orr cohort. British Medical Journal, 317(14/11), 1350–1351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He, W., Muenchrath, M. N., & Kowal, P. (2012). Shades of gray: A cross-country study of health and well-being of the older populations in SAGE countries, 2007–2010. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau, US government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Health and Retirement Study, Public Use Dataset. (2000–2006). Produced and distributed by the University of Michigan with funding from the National Institute on Aging (grant Number NIA U01AG009740), Ann Arbor, MI.

    Google Scholar 

  • International Labor Organization. (2010). ISCO, International standard classification of occupations. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco/index.htm. Accessed 2012.

  • Katz, S., & Akpom, C. A. (1976). Index of ADL. Medical Care, 14, 116–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuder, G. F., & Richardson, M. W. (1937). The theory of the estimation of test reliability. Psychometrika, 2, 151–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuh, D., & Ben-Shlomo, Y. (Eds.). (2004). A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuh, D., & Wadsworth, M. (1989). Parental height: Childhood environment and subsequent adult height in a national birth cohort. International Journal of Epidemiology, 18(3), 663–668.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • López-Alonso, M. (2007). Growth with inequality: Living standards in Mexico, 1850–1950. Journal of Latin American Studies, 39, 81–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maddison, A. (2006). The world economy. Paris: OECD Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McDowell, I. (2006). Measuring health: A guide to rating scales and questionnaires. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEniry, M. (2008, October 23–26). Determinants of health status among the elderly population in Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia: A comparison of past mortality regimes. Paper presented at the 33rd annual meeting of the Social Science History Association (SSHA), Miami, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEniry, M. (2009c). Mortality decline in the twentieth century, early life conditions and the health of aging populations in the developing world (Working Paper #2009-04). Madison, WI: Center for Demography & Ecology, University of Wisconsin.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEniry, M. (2010b). The health transition and mortality among older adults in Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia (Working Paper #2010-01). Madison, WI: Center for Demography & Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEniry, M. (2011a, March 30–April 2). Early life conditions, adult disability and mortality among aging populations in developing countries. Presented at the Population Association of America’s annual meeting, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEniry, M., Moen, S., & McDermott, J. (2013). Cross national data on aging populations: Methods report on the compilation of cross national data on older adults from 20 low, middle and high income countries. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEniry, M., Palloni, A., Dávila, A. L., & García, G. A. (2008). Early life exposure and its effects on the health of older Puerto Rican adults. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 63B(6), S337–S348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehrotra, S., & Jolly, R. (Eds.). (1997). Development with a human face: Experiences in social achievement and economic growth. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagi, S. Z. (1976). An epidemiology of disability among adults in the united states. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society, 54(4), 439–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ortiz, P. N. (1927). Report of the commissioner of health of Porto Rico to the governor of Porto Rico for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1926. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Bureau of Supplies, Printing and Transportation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortiz, P. N. (1931). Report of the commissioner of health of Porto Rico for the fiscal year ending 1930 to the governor of Porto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Bureau of Supplies, Printing and Transportation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palloni, A., McEniry, M., Dávila, A. L., & García Gurucharri, A. (2005). The influence of early conditions on health status among elderly Puerto Ricans. Social Biology, 52(3/4), 132–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palloni, A., McEniry, M., Wong, R., & Peláez, M. (2007, August 31–September 2). Ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean: Implications of past mortality (pp. 253–284). Proceedings of the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Social and Economic Implications of Changing Population Age Structures, Mexico City, Mexico.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prokhorov, B. B. (2005–2009). The public health in Russia during the last 100 years (1897–1997). http://www.rus-stat.ru/eng/index.php?vid=1&year=2000&id=58. Accessed 2011.

  • Pluijm, S. M., Bardage, C., Nikula, S., Blumstein, T., Jylhä, M., Minicuci, N., et al. (2005). A harmonized measure of activities of daily living was a reliable and valid instrument for comparing disability in older people across countries. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 58(10), 1015–1023.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preston, S. (1976). Mortality patterns in national populations with special reference to recorded causes of death. New York: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puerto Rican Elderly: Health Conditions (PREHCO). (2007). Proyecto PREHCO I 2002–2003 Informe Metodológico [Methods report, PREHCO I Project 2002–2003]. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, Center for Demography and Ecology; and University of Puerto Rico, Graduate School of Public Health. http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cdha/projects/projects.html, http://prehco.rcm.upr.edu/docs/infor_met2.pdf

  • Raghunathan, T. E., Reiter, J. P., & Rubin, D. B. (2003). Multiple imputation for disclosure limitation. Journal of Official Statistics, 19, 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raghunathan, T. E., Solenberger, P. W., & Van Hoewyk, J. (2007). IVEware: Imputation and variance estimation [Computer software]. www.isr.umich.edu/src/smp/ive/. Accessed 31 July 2007.

  • Research on Early Life and Aging: Trends and Effects (RELATE). (2013). Produced and distributed by the University of Michigan: Institute for Social Research, ICPSR [distributor]. Anticipated release date, Summer 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riley, J. C. (2005a). Bibliography of works providing estimates of life expectancy at birth and estimates of the beginning period of health transitions in countries with a population in 2000 of at least 400,000. http://www.lifetable.de/RileyBib.htm. Accessed 2009.

  • Rockwood, K., & Mitnitski, A. (2007). Frailty in relation to the accumulation of deficits. Journal of Gerontology, 62A(7), 722–727.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, G. A. (1962). The diagnosis of ischaemic heart pain and intermittent claudication in field surveys. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 27, 645–658.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, G., Reid, D. D., Hamilton, P. J. S., McCartney, P., Keen, H., & Jarrett, R. J. (1977). Myocardial ischaemia, risk factors and death from coronary heart disease. Lancet, 309(8003), 105–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Royston, P. (2004). Multiple imputation of missing values. The Stata Journal, 4(3), 227–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Royston, P. (2006). ICE: Stata module for multiple imputation of missing values. Chestnut Hill, MA : Statistical Software Components, Boston College Department of Economics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, D. (1987). Multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. New York: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, L. A., Branch, L. G., & Scherr, P. A. (1990). Short-term variability of measures of physical function in older people. Journal of American Geriatric Society, 38, 993–998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stump, T. E., Clark, D. O., Johnson, R. J., & Wolinsky, F. D. (1977). The structure of health status among Hispanic, African American, and white older adults [Special Issue]. Journals of Gerontology, 52B, 49–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United States Census Bureau. (1932). Outlying territories and possessions. Number and distribution of inhabitant composition and characteristics of the population, occupations, unemployment and agriculture. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Buren, S., Boshuizen, H., & Knook, D. (1999). Multiple imputation of missing blood pressure covariates in survival analysis. Statistics in Medicine, 18, 681–694.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waaler, H. T. (1984). Height, weight, and mortality: The Norwegian experience. Acta Medica Scandinavica, 679(Suppl), 1–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein, M., & Goldman, N. (2003). Social environment and biomarkers of aging study (SEBAS) in Taiwan, 2000 (ICPSR version). Washington, DC/Princeton, NJ: Maxine Weinstein, Georgetown University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Center for Population and Health/Noreen Goldman, Princeton University, Office of Population Research [producers], 2000. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wray, L. A., Herzog, A. R., & Park, D. C. (1996, November). Physical health, mental health, and function among older adults. Presented at the annual meetings of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wray, L. A., & Lynch, J. W. (1998, November). The role of cognitive ability in links between disease severity and functional ability in middle-aged adults. Presented at the annual meetings of the Gerontological Society of America, Philadelphia.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Mary McEniry

Authors
  1. Mary McEniry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

McEniry, M. (2014). Data Sources, Measures, Validity, and a Description of the Older Adult Population. In: Early Life Conditions and Rapid Demographic Changes in the Developing World. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6979-3_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation