Comparison of Older Adults Cognitive and physical in East Asian Countries

Research

Objectives: In response to the rapidly increasing number of aging populations, international efforts have been made to improve older adults’ health and quality of life. Through international comparisons and analyses of health outcomes and relevant policies, governments often refurbish the structure and details of their health policies to promote successful aging tailored to their healthcare ecosystems. Among various health outcomes, there is no doubt that maintaining cognitive and physical functions are fundamental conditions for older adults’ successful aging. This study compared cognitive and physical functions across Korea, China, and Japan: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: The following datasets are used: China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, and Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement.

Participants: A total of 2,506, 178, and 934 participants from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement, and the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging were sequentially extracted for this study.

Interventions: Cognitive and physical function items were extracted and linked using a Rasch model to create a global measure across the three countries. We conducted multiple regression analyses to compare cognitive and physical functions among the countries.

Main Outcome Measures: Not applicable

Results: Thirteen cognitive function items and 20 physical function items were extracted and linked from the three datasets. Multiple regression analyses showed that Japanese older adults (Mean=1.39, SD=1.22) had significantly higher cognitive functional scores, followed by Chinese (Mean=0.45, SD=1.76) and Korean (Mean = =0.27, SD = 2.29) on average (p < .0001). On the other hand, the three counties’ physical scores were not statistically different.

Conclusions: Japanese older adults demonstrated higher average cognitive scores than Korean and Chinese older adults. We suspect that this could have resulted from the early adaptation of health policies targeted to older adults corresponding to their aging society in Japan.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.