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Morbidity profiles and lifetime health of Australian centenarians
Author(s) -
Richmond Robyn L,
Law Jenaleen,
KayLambkin Frances
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-6612.2011.00570.x
Subject(s) - medicine , dementia , depression (economics) , osteoporosis , anxiety , disease , gerontology , population , physical therapy , psychiatry , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
Aim: To examine the lifetime prevalence and initial onset of diseases among centenarians. Methods: In this descriptive study, we administered structured questionnaires by interview to 188 centenarians and asked about the presence and timing of 14 common age‐related diseases. Results: The most common conditions were ocular disease (70%), arthritis (58%) and hypertension (40%). Average age at disease onset was 80 years, and average number of comorbidities was 3. Participants were characterised into three morbidity profiles – survivors (46%), delayers (34%) and escapers (19%). No participants had a diagnosis of dementia or osteoporosis before age 80 years. Conclusion: Relative to the general population, a select sample of Australian centenarians reported lower rates of chronic conditions, with many escaping osteoporosis, dementia, cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, cancers, anxiety and depression. Increasing age is correlated with increasing morbidity but a few centenarians reached 100 years of age without disease.