Table 1.
Selected Characteristics of Respondents Aged 65 or Older in the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS)
| MHAS | HRS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | Men | Women | Men | Women |
| Disability at Time 1 (%) | ||||
| No disability | 53.3 | 36.5*** | 37.1 | 26.8*** |
| Limitations only in mobility | 29.4 | 38.5*** | 30.0 | 37.4*** |
| Limitations in mobility and IADL | 3.7 | 7.9*** | 6.4 | 6.6 |
| Limitations in mobility and ADL | 4.6 | 5.6** | 8.9 | 10.4** |
| Limitations in all three | 8.1 | 9.7* | 12.1 | 16.5** |
| Other limitations | 0.9 | 1.8* | 5.5 | 2.3* |
| Disability at Time 2 (%) | ||||
| No disability | 45.3 | 32.0*** | 28.3 | 22.2*** |
| Limitations only in mobility | 26.2 | 33.0*** | 24.2 | 32.2*** |
| Limitations in mobility and IADL | 4.5 | 6.5** | 5.6 | 7.3** |
| Limitations in mobility and ADL | 3.9 | 5.3*** | 6.3 | 8.6** |
| Limitations in all three | 3.9 | 9.3*** | 11.9 | 16.8*** |
| Other limitations | 1.2 | 0.7* | 4.4 | 2.0* |
| Dead | 9.9 | 8.3** | 18.9 | 10.6*** |
| Lost to follow-up | 5.1 | 4.9 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Sociodemographic and economic | ||||
| Age distribution (%) | ||||
| 65–69 years old | 36.6 | 37.4 | 27.4 | 25.6* |
| 70–74 years old | 25.7 | 25.5 | 26.5 | 25.5* |
| 75 years or older | 37.7 | 37.1 | 46.1 | 48.9*** |
| Average age (years) | 73.2 | 73.1 | 74.5 | 75.2 |
| Education distribution (%) | ||||
| No education | 39.1 | 43.2*** | ||
| Between 1 and 5 years of schooling | 36.6 | 32.1** | ||
| 6 years of schooling | 10.6 | 12.1 | ||
| 7 or more years of schooling | 13.7 | 12.6 | ||
| Less than 9 years of schooling | 17.3 | 14.8*** | ||
| Between 9 and 11 years of schooling | 16.2 | 16.2*** | ||
| 12 years of schooling | 29.6 | 38.8*** | ||
| 13 years or more of schooling | 36.9 | 30.2*** | ||
| Average education (years) | 3.2 | 2.9 | 11.9 | 11.7 |
| Monthly income distribution (%) | ||||
| Zero or negative income | 22.6 | 29.1*** | ||
| Less than 5,000 Mexican Pesos | 62.3 | 60.8* | ||
| Between 5,000 and 9,999 Mexican Pesos | 9.3 | 5.5 | ||
| 10,000 Mexican Pesos or more | 5.8 | 4.6 | ||
| Zero or negative income | 0.9 | 0.9 | ||
| Less than US$10,000 | 19.1 | 52.2*** | ||
| Between US$10,000 and US$19,999 | 41.3 | 32.1*** | ||
| US$20,000 or more | 38.7 | 14.8*** | ||
| Insurance (%) | ||||
| Any coverage | 54.0 | 56.4 | 99.3 | 99.3 |
| Health | ||||
| Poor self-rated health (%) | 23.8 | 23.7 | 10.8 | 12.0 * |
| Number of depressive symptoms | 3.6 | 4.5*** | 2.0 | 2.4*** |
| Average combined verbal recall score | 4.0 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.5*** |
| Unweighted sample size | 2,074 | 2,278 | 1,865 | 3,936 |
Notes: ADL = activities of daily living; IADL = instrumental activities of daily living.
Weighted data and unweighted sample size totals. All variables are at Time 1(2000 for the HRS and 2001 for the MHAS) unless noted. “Other limitations” refers to respondents with limitations only in ADL, or limitations only in IADL, or limitations in both ADL and IADL. This category and “Lost to follow-up” are only included for descriptive purposes and are excluded from the ordinal logistic regression analysis.
Significance: *p ≤ .05. **p ≤ .01. ***p ≤ .001. Chi-square differences by gender for each country.
Source: Author’s calculations with data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (2001, 2003) and the Health and Retirement Study (2003, 2006).