Factors associated with the prevalence of various self-reported impairments among older people residing in the community.

Self-reported data from the Health and Activity Limitation Survey (HALS) and the General Social Survey (GSS) are used to estimate the prevalence of psychological or mental, mobility, agility, seeing and hearing impairments in the elderly population. Multiple impairments are common in the elderly population and the prevalence of the various impairments increases with age in a log-linear manner. Relative risks are estimated for the various impairments on the basis of income, marital status, housing tenure and living arrangements. Among these four variables, low income appears to have the greatest effect.