Psychosocial Correlates of Subjective Health in Sexagenarians, Octogenarians, and Centenarians

The purpose of this study was to determine if a psychosocial model was a significant improvement over a demographic or a physical health model in predicting subjective health in older adults. Correlates of subjective health in sexagenarians, octogenarians, and centenarians were examined with hierarchical regression analysis. Data were obtained in the first wave of the Georgia Centenarian Study from 1988 to 1992. Psychosocial variables helped explain a significant component of subjective health variance above and beyond the effects of demographic or physical health variables. For centenarians an apprehensive personality and low levels of control over health were additional correlates of poor subjective health. Centenarians were the only cohort to have a unique set of correlates, indicating a uniqueness in the oldest-old, as compared to the young-old and old-old. These findings indicate that a multidimensional perspective of health in older adults is more appropriate than medical models.