Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Physical function is one of the most critical predictors for quality of life during older adulthood. Gaps in research documenting age trajectory of functional health not only limit our ability to access aging quality across countries but also diminish the practicality of culturally adapted aging policies. This study delineates age trajectories of limitations in physical function, including activities of daily living (ADLs), intellectual activities of daily living (IADLs), mobility, and frailty from midlife to older age. The study analyzes two nationally representative older adults’ surveys in Taiwan and in Japan, the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging, TLSA 1996-2007 and the National Survey of the Japanese Elderly, NSJE 1996-2006, and employs multilevel modeling and cohort sequential design. Results show that Taiwanese elderly reported significantly higher limitations in ADLs and frailty than Japanese elderly at the same age. In addition, significant increases in limitations in ADLs and IADLs were observed at a younger age in Taiwan than in Japan, starting from sixty-six in Taiwan but from seventy-one in Japan. Furthermore, limitations in both IADLs and mobility increased significantly with greater age in Taiwan than in Japan. There were 1.46 (p<.05) and 1.85 (p<.001) fold, respectively. The gap between the disability of Taiwanese and Japanese elderly was more obvious in older generations/cohorts. Taking the eighty-five-year-old generation as an example, Taiwanese elderly reported 6.687 limitations in ADLs, while Japan only reported 2.046, and similarly, 9.290 v.s. 3.834 in IADLs, 14.652 v.s. 5.600 in mobility, and 1.873 v.s.1.601 in frailty.