Older Adults' Perceptions of their Health and Functioning in Relation to Sleep Disturbance, Falling, and Urinary Incontinence

OBJECTIVE: To investigate variation in older adults' perceived health and functioning that is associated with self‐reported sleep disturbance, falling, and urinary incontinence, controlling for self‐reported depression, ambulation difficulty, number of chronic conditions, and subjects' sociode‐mographic characteristics. DESIGN: Multicenter prospective study (FICSIT). SETTING: Persons age 70 and older living in the community evaluated at baseline. PARTICIPANTS: 239 women, 113 men; mean age = 77. MEASUREMENTS: Sleep disturbance score based on EPESE questions, recent falls history (Y/N), incontinent episodes (Y/N), CES‐D score, SIP Ambulation score, and 4 MOS SF‐36 scale scores. RESULTS: Women were significantly more likely than men to report multiple conditions (sleep disturbance, falling, incontinence) and to report lower levels of functioning as measured by 3 of 4 SF‐36 scales. In regression analyses, sleep disturbance and urinary incontinence were significant predictors of perceived limitation in usual role activities because of physical health problems. Depression and ambulation measures significantly predicted scores on all 4 SF‐36 scales. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis suggests that it is important to address depressive symptomatology and ambulation difficulty—which in turn are related to sleep disturbance, falling, and urinary incontinence —in efforts to enhance older adults' perceived health and functioning. 1994 The American Geriatrics Society