Self-Assessed and Functional Health of Older Women

This study examines the contributions made by functional health, age self-concept, and attitudes, and demographic variables toward explaining health self-assessments in a sample of older women. The participants in the study were a simple random sample of white females (114) over age sixty years and who were residents in five apartment complexes for the aged in a large Midwestern city. Significant correlations to self-assessment of health were found among measures of functional health, self-concept and attitudes, and demographic variables. Multiple regression analysis using five variables (self-assessment of speed, emotional behavior, age self-concept, body care and movement, and occupation) explained almost 40 percent of variance in self-assessment of health data.