A New Typology of Functionality and Health of the Elderly in Mexico

Roberto Ham-Chande, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte
Cesar A. González, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte

Using the survey from the Mexican Health and Aging Study 2001 (MHAS) new estimates are constructed that consider chronic diseases, ADL, IADL, health self-assessment and risks from health behavior in a single indicator. Aging is thus classified in four types: ideal, active, regular and pathological. Results show that 0.7 % of the population 50 over enjoy an ideal aging, the active type is 71.0 %, those that have a usual aging are 26.8 % and pathological conditions impinge on 1.5 %. There are not significant differences between sexes for the ideal category. Differences are significant in the active and regular brackets. In males active aging is in 77.0% and 20.7 % for regular. For women figures are 65.9 % and 32.0 %. These indicators are quite sensitive by age and they can be translated into measurable variables in models to estimate health expectancy.