Self-Rated Health and Social Factors ii the Urban Japanese—A Study of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

Self-rated health is one of the most common measures of health status in the health sciences. However, little is known about its social and psychological background. In the present study, we evaluated a total of 13,034 subjects identified from a 2001 survey in Tama City, Japan. The study design was cross-sectional and targeted individuals aged 65 years or older. Data, including medication use, socio-economic factors, lifestyle and instrumental ADL were collected via self-administered questionnaires. A decrease in self-rated health with age was noted both in men and women. Factor analyses showed these factors clustered into 4 unrelated groups in men and 5 groups in women. A theoretical model with four latent and 14 manifest variables was formulated by AMOS 5.0 (SPSS, Japan). There were four latent variables. In the present study, relationships between these four latent variables were examined. The findings showed that decreases in yearly income, daily activity, and poor social support could disrupt the balance of health in elderly populations. The structural equation models (SEMs) could comprise schematically a new ordered nature of self-rated health and social circumstances.