Self-rated health (SRH) as a predictor of mortality in elderly men living in a medium-size city in Brazil

The objective was to examine the role of SRH as a predictor of mortality in elderly men in a medium-size Brazilian city. In 2 years of follow-up, 120 deaths occurred in the study population, with the following main causes: cardiovascular diseases (40%), neoplasms (22.5%), and respiratory diseases (10%). In practically all of the target variable strata, elderly men with fair or poor SRH showed a higher risk of dying as compared to those with excellent or good SRH. In the final model, the variables fair/poor SRH (hazard risk = HR = 1.88, 95% confidence interval = 95%CI = 1.29-2.72), age (HR = 1.05, 95%CI = 1.03-1.08), public health system as the regular source of care (HR = 1.69, 95%CI = 1.10-2.60), current smoking (HR = 1.94, 95%CI = 1.24-3.04), and acute cardiovascular disease (HR = 1.62, 95%CI = 1.06-2.47) were associated with mortality. We concluded that SRH proved to be a predictive variable for mortality in elderly men after 2 years of follow-up, with nearly a twofold risk of death among men that reported fair or poor health, after adjusting for age, regular use of the public health system, current smoking, and acute cardiovascular disease. Given the importance of poor SRH for predicting mortality in elderly men, health services should incorporate this indicator into health assessments in this population.