Self-Rated Health and Mortality Among the Elderly in Matlab Bangladesh

While the relationship between self-rated health and mortality is well established in industrialized country settings, there is little evidence from developing countries. This study seeks to further our understanding of the relationship between self-rated health and mortality in a developing country, through the use of a unique longitudinal dataset from Matlab, Bangladesh. Using panel data from two rounds of the Matlab Health and Socioeconomic Survey and the Matlab Health and Demographic Surveillance System, the study first examines correlates of self-reported health, then the relationship between self-reported health and mortality using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards analyses. To the extent that people are aware of their health condition regardless of whether they have access to health care, this study is expected to find that self-rated health is a good predictor of subsequent mortality and morbidity. However, the high prevalence of infectious diseases and injuries may mean that previous self-rated health status have little relations to subsequent mortality. The results from this study will provide new insights to a scarcely explored topic on the relationship between self-rated health, mortality, and functional disability in a low-income setting.