Volume 36 - Article 30 | Pages 863–892  

Functional limitation trajectories and their determinants among women in the Philippines

By Zachary Zimmer, Luoman Bao, Nanette L. Mayol, Feinian Chen, Tita Lorna L. Perez, Paulita L. Duazo

Abstract

Background: Limited evidence exists regarding how functional limitation patterns of women in developing countries unfold through midlife and into old age, a critical period during which the tendency to develop severe problems is fomented.

Objective: Functional limitation prevalence and patterns through midlife into early old age, and their determinants, are examined among women in the Philippines.

Methods: Data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Study are monitored from 1994 to 2015. Patterns are categorized using group-based trajectory modeling. Predictors of group membership are modeled.

Results: About half responding to all survey waves report functional limitation at least once over the study period. Movements in and out of functional limitation states are common. Between age 30 and 70, trajectories are categorized into four groups: 1) robust, 2) late onset, 3) early onset, and 4) recovery. Being married, living in a nuclear household, higher successful birth ratio, and higher education associate with favorable trajectories. More births, higher age at first birth, wealth, and urbanicity associate with less favorable trajectories.

Conclusions: Many possible routes into and out of functional limitation exist. The manifold patterns can be grouped into common trajectories. A number of earlier life characteristics associate with these trajectories.

Contribution: This is the first analysis to ascertain common functional limitation trajectories and earlier life predictors among women as they age in a high fertility developing country setting. Recognizing these is an important step toward understanding global health given aging of the population and the likelihood of functional problems developing in women as they move into old age.

Author's Affiliation

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Aligning household decision-making with work and education: A comparative analysis of women’s empowerment
Volume 48 - Article 19

The mixed blessing of living together or close by: Parent–child relationship quality and life satisfaction of older adults in China
Volume 44 - Article 24

Fathers' migration and nutritional status of children in India: Do the effects vary by community context?
Volume 43 - Article 20

Childhood socioeconomic status, adult socioeconomic status, and old-age health trajectories: Connecting early, middle, and late life
Volume 34 - Article 10

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Uncovering disability-free grandparenthood in Italy between 1998 and 2016 using gender-specific decomposition
Volume 50 - Article 42    | Keywords: aging, decomposition, disability, grandparenthood, Italy

Ageing and diversity: Inequalities in longevity and health in low-mortality countries
Volume 50 - Article 12    | Keywords: aging, health, lifespan inequality, longevity, old-age threshold, regional differences, socioeconomic status

Advanced or postponed motherhood? Migrants’ and natives’ gap between ideal and actual age at first birth in Spain
Volume 49 - Article 22    | Keywords: actual age at first birth, age at arrival, fertility, ideal age at first birth, international migration, motherhood, Spain

Frailty at death: An examination of multiple causes of death in four low mortality countries in 2017
Volume 49 - Article 2    | Keywords: aging, causes of mortality, mortality, multiple causes of death

Aligning household decision-making with work and education: A comparative analysis of women’s empowerment
Volume 48 - Article 19    | Keywords: autonomy, cross-national comparison, decision-making, developing countries, development, gender, gender inequalities, latent class analysis, women empowerment