The primary aim of this study has been to examine and describe self-reported fatigue among the oldest old in Sweden and to look at changes both over a ten year period, between and within different social groups. Additional aims were to examine if fatigue is related to mortality. Fatigue is defined as an outcome in self-rated ill-health which includes several dimensions of fatigue – physical, psychological and/or medical. Data were constructed out of two levels of living study – SWEOLD – comprising aged 77 and above. Two dependent variables are being uses as outcomes – fatigue and tiredness. Background variables being used – defined as different social groups – are (interview year), age, gender, social class, civil status and type of housing. Cross tabulation, gamma, multivariate logistic regression and Cox regression were used in the analysis. The result shows that fatigue is a commonly experienced phenomenon, especially among those who are institutionalize. Differences were also found among age, social class and civil status. Fatigue has increased between 1992 and 2002 but no changes over time could be identified for a particular social group. The results also showed that fatigue is related to mortality. Conclusion drawn from the results is that the increasing among the elderly persons in reporting fatigue and/or tiredness over time has fall upon all examined social groups in the Swedish society and still, fatigue as a phenomenon is poorly understood.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-46161 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Hols Salén, Linda |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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