Mexican Older Adults in a Mixed Epidemiological Regime

Rafael Samper-Ternent, University of Texas Medical Branch
Alejandra Michaels-Obregon, University of Texas Medical Branch

Background: Mexico is undergoing an epidemiological transition. Advances in medicine have improved life expectancy like other developing countries. Chronic non-communicable diseases affect a large percentage of older adults, while many of these adults are still exposed to infectious agents that cause communicable diseases. How this mixed disease regime affects the health and well-being of older Mexican adults is not well understood. Methods: Data comes from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) 2001 and 2003, a national representative sample of adults aged 50 and older. A total sample of 12,207 was included for the analysis. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the relationship between self-reported health and its covariates under a mixed regime of non-communicable and communicable diseases. Changes in self-reported health between 2001 and 2003 were also analyzed using multinomial analysis by type of disease