Subjective Aging and Basic Activities of Daily Living: Moderation by Health Care Access and Mediation by Health Care Resources

Abstract

Subjective aging in older adults is associated with a decline in basic activities of daily living (bADL), although this is less well studied with increasing age cohorts by their healthcare resources (HCR) and healthcare access (HCA) controlling for sociodemographics. We aimed to address this gap in knowledge by analyzing the National Health and Aging Trends round 11 data set on 3303 older adults aged 70 to above 90, comprising 42% male and 58% female by age cohort (middle-old -70–79, n = 1409; older-old -80–89, n = 1432, oldest-old- 90 plus, n = 462). Results of mediation–moderation analysis show the subjective aging whole model comprising subjective cognitive decline, HCR, HCA, and sociodemographic to predict a decline in bADL with increasing age to be higher among the older-old age (80–89) compared to the middle-old age (70–79) or oldest-old (90 years +) cohorts. These findings suggest a “doughnut” effect by which the older-old age cohort of 80–89 may be coping less well with their bADL, while the oldest-old may have adapted to functional loss in their everyday living and/or comprises adults who may have passed a mortality selection despite a more significant burden of comorbidity.