Rates and Predictors of Mortality in an Aging, Rural, Community-Based Cohort

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Abstract
A SUBSTANTIAL but surprisingly inconclusive body of literature has focused on the prediction of mortality in older members of the population at large. There is little debate about the importance of functional disability, particularly the inability to independently perform instrumental activities of daily living(IADLs), as a predictor of mortality.1-18 A separate, less consistent, corpus of work demonstrates that depressive illness or depressive symptoms also predict mortality.7,8,18-25 Another group of studies has shown that self-perceptions or self-ratings of health predict mortality,8,11 while still others have found cognitive impairment to predict mortality.2-5,18,19,21,26-32 Furthermore, self-rated health, functional disability, and cognitive impairment themselves have been shown to be associated with depression.33,34 All measure different but related, broad aspects of ill health in individuals. Their combined effects on mortality in a representative population sample would shed light on their relative contributions.