Factors Related to Impaired Mental Health in Urban Elderly

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Abstract
Associations between self-rated, scale, and interviewer-rated measures of mental health status and a set of demographic and functional abilities variables were studied. Data on these variables were obtained from an administration of the OARS to 1139 elderly in an urban community. Findings common to at least two of the three mental health measures were that physical health showed a strong association with mental health, inability to engage in activities of daily living was associated with poorer mental health even after controlling for physical health, married men showed better mental health than those not married, social resources were strongly associated with mental health for women but less so for men, and economic resources showed a consistent association with mental health. Different models for the three measures of mental health help to explain the inconsistent associations found in previous studies.