0.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.7, X 2 ΒΌ 8.2, p ΒΌ 0.004). When all the variables were controlled for, only functional impairment consistently remained independently associated with emotional distress with a trend for physical illness (OR 3.5, 95%CI 1.1-10.3, p ΒΌ 0.03, OR 2.2, 95%CI 0.8-6.1, p ΒΌ 0.06).
Comment
Between 1 in 3 and 1 in 5 community older adults had physical and emotional distress. Physical symptoms commonly occurred together and with psychological distress contributed to impairment in functioning. Functional impairment was independently associated with emotional distress. In a previous paper we reported that dependence was associated with memory difficulty, stroke, physical impairment and depression (Uwakwe et al., 2009). The relationship between subjective memory complaints, objective cognitive test and incident dementia remain inconsistent across studies. One possible mechanism is the contribution of various sociodemographic and health factors that generate co-occurring physical illnesses which activate memory complaints.
In spite of physical and mental distress, the majority of the older adults still rated their health as good or fair, which may perhaps be partly accounted for by the fact that generally, most Nigerians express satisfaction with life irrespective of any hardships.
Our small non-representative sample (with the possibility of having excluded those with more disablement), the use of subjective health conditions, the non graded nature of the KADL and the impossibility of implying any causal direction in a cross sectional investigation are some of the obvious weaknesses of this report.