Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, Vol 55, Issue 1 M28-M33, Copyright © 2000 by The Gerontological Society of America
Gender differences in functioning for older adults in rural Bangladesh. The impact of differential reporting?
MO Rahman and J Liu
Department of Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115. [email protected]
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to examine gender differences in
functional ability among older adults in rural Bangladesh in terms of both
self-reported activities of daily living and observed physical performance
and to evaluate the extent to which differential reporting by gender
contributes to disparities between the two measures. METHODS: In 1996, the
Matlab Health and Socio-Economic Survey collected data on self-reported
activities of daily living (ADLs) and observed physical performance for
1,893 men and women aged 50 and older in the Matlab Surveillance area in
rural Bangladesh. Gender differences were examined in both self-reported
ADLs and physical-performance measures. With physical-performance measures
as the gold standard, logistic regression was used to determine how much of
the gender difference in the self- reported function was explained by
physical-performance ability controlling for age. RESULTS: Older women in
this study population consistently had more limitations than men in both
self-reported ADLs and observed physical performance. For the same level of
observed physical performance, however, older women were more likely than
men were to report a higher level of ADL limitation. This reported female
health disadvantage varied considerably depending on the nature of the ADLs
being examined and the type of scoring system used for the ADLs.
CONCLUSIONS: One has to be somewhat cautious in interpreting gender
differences in self-reported ADL limitations, as they are affected by the
gender-specific nature of the reported activity and by gender differences
in the perception of response categories.
