HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hong, T. B. Articles by Malmberg, B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Hong, T. B. Articles by Malmberg, B.

The Role of Health Congruence in Functional Status and Depression

¹ Department of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
² Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
³ Institute of Gerontology, School of Health Sciences, Jönköping University, Sweden.

Address correspondence to Tantina Hong, Durham VA Medical Center (152), Building 16, Room 70, 508 Fulton Street, Durham, NC 27705. E-mail: hong0010{at}mc.duke.edu

Few studies have attempted to examine the meaning of health congruence, particularly in the oldest old. Participants were drawn from a longitudinal study of the oldest old (N = 151; M = 90 years). Dichotomized objective health was cross classified with dichotomized subjective health, producing four health congruence groups: good health realists, poor health realists, optimists, and pessimists. Both good health realists and pessimists had good objective health, yet pessimists had the highest depression, lowest functional status, and frequent reports of hospitalization. By contrast, the poor health realists and optimist groups had poor objective health, but the optimists had better outcomes on depression. This suggests that discrepancies between objective and subjective health may have significant implications for health outcomes.