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Objective:To explore changes in self-reported disabilities, health, comorbidities and psychological wellbeing (PWB) in aged cohorts over two decades. Design, setting and subjects:Cross-sectional cohort studies with postal surveys were conducted among community-dwelling people aged 75, 80, 85, 90 and 95 years in 1989 (n = 660), 1999 (n = 2598) and 2009 (n = 1637) in Helsinki, Finland. Main outcome measures:Self-reported items on disability, self-rated health (SRH), diagnoses and PWB were compared between cohorts of the same age. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated for each study year to explore the representativeness of the samples compared to general population of same age. Results:A significantly lower proportion of the 75–85-year-olds of the later study years reported going outdoors daily, although this group had improvements in both SRH and PWB scores. The number of comorbidities increased over time among 75–85-year-olds. The only significant change that could be verified among 90- and 95-year-olds between 1999 and 2009, was the lower proportion of participants going outdoors daily. The trend of leveling-off in disabilities was not explained by the SMRs (0.90, 0.71 and 0.60 for 1989, 1999 and 2009). Conclusions:The latest older people’s cohorts showed an end to previously reported improvements in disabilities, despite having favorable trends in SRH and PWB. Primary care may be faced with increasing need of appropriate services for their senior members. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: little is known about the oldest-olds' views on ageing. Objective: to investigate older people's desire and the reasons they give for wanting to live to 100. Design: a postal questionnaire, analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Setting: population based in Helsinki, Finland. Subjects: a random sample (response rate 64%; N = 1,405) of community-dwelling older people (aged 75-96). Methods: a structured self-completed questionnaire with an open-ended question on the reasons why/why not participants wished/did not wish to live to 100. Results: one-third (32.9%) of home-dwelling older people wanted to live to be 100. Those who did were older, more often male and self-rated their health better than those who did not. Often the desire for long life was conditional: 'Yes, if I stay healthy'. Among the reasons is that many were curious to see what would happen. Many stated that they loved life, they had twinkle in their eye or significant life roles. Those who did not want to live extremely long lives gave various rationales: they would become disabled, life would be meaningless, they were reluctant to become a burden to others or they feared loss of autonomy or suffering pain or loneliness. Some people also shared the view that they should not intervene in destiny or they felt that they had accomplished what they wanted in life. Conclusions: one-third of the oldest-old participants wanted to live to 100. Identifying what motivated them to desire long life could be a resource in their care plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Taking medical history from a very old patient for either clinical or research purposes raises the question of the reliability of the information obtained. We ascertained whether the self-reported medical history and self-rated health of 90-year-olds would be in agreement with their medical records. Methods: Information on chronic diseases and self-rated health was collected using medical records and a mailed questionnaire in a population sample of community-living 90-year-old subjects in Tampere, Finland. The results were compared with earlier studies on self-reported medical history. Results: The inter-source agreement of the reported diseases was relatively good. As expected, many of the diseases diagnosed were under-reported in the mailed questionnaire. However, dementia, depression and arthritis were reported more often than doctors had recorded them. Of the respondents, 78% reported their current health as good or average. Subjects with heart disease, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson's disease or depression reported poor health more often than those not having these diseases. Conclusions: The agreement between medical records and self-reported medical history obtained by questionnaire showed a similar pattern to earlier studies in younger old populations, but in the 90-year olds, the differences became larger. In future studies, special attention should be paid to the oldest old who under-report certain diagnosed medical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies of perceived ageism among older people have focused on younger age groups with the respondents' mean age far below 80., Objective: To explore the perceptions of poor societal treatment of older people among home-dwelling people aged 75-100+ and how their perceptions are associated with demographic characteristics, health, functioning, and wellbeing., Methods: In the Helsinki Aging Study, a random sample of 2,917 home-dwelling people aged 75-104 received a postal questionnaire inquiring about their health, wellbeing and experiences. The response rate was 74%. We asked: 'How in your opinion are older people treated in Finland?' (well/moderately/poorly) and categorized the respondents according to their responses. A multivariable forward stepwise ordered logistic regression model was used to determine the independent associations of the variables on the ordinal level of perceptions of treatment., Results: Of the participants, 1,653 responded to the index item. Of these, only 13% thought that older people are treated well in society, and 66% and 21% were of the opinion that older people are treated moderately or poorly in society, respectively. Perceived poor societal treatment was more common among women, the younger respondents, and those with lower incomes, as well as family caregivers and those with lower self-rated health and lower psychological wellbeing. Those who were able to walk outside unassisted and those with a regular hobby perceived poor societal treatment more often., Conclusions: Several demographic factors, self-rated health, psychological wellbeing and better functioning were associated with perceptions of poor treatment among the oldest-old., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Social inequality in health is well documented in younger adults and the younger old adults, but data from the very old adults are scarce. We used a representative population sample to investigate socioeconomic differences in health and functioning among nonagenarian men and women., Method: Data came from the Vitality 90+ Study. All individuals aged 90 and older in the city of Tampere, Finland, were included, irrespective of health or dwelling place. Data were collected from 1,283 participants whose age range ran from 90 to 107 years. Education and former main occupation were used as indicators of socioeconomic status, and health was measured as functional ability, comorbidity, and self-rated health. Data were analyzed in a cross-sectional design using cross tabulation, ordered regression model with marginal effects, and binary logistic regression model., Results: Manual workers had poorer functional ability and health than upper nonmanuals and similarly the low- educated suffered more from health issues than the high-educated. Most analyses showed a graded association between the lower socioeconomic status and a poorer health outcome. On each level of the socioeconomic hierarchy, men had better functional status than women., Discussion: We found socioeconomic differences in functional ability, comorbidity, and self-rated health in nonagenarians. Our findings suggest that social disparity in health and functioning exists in very old age.