OCCUPATION AND SURVIVAL - A 25-YEAR FOLLOW-UP-STUDY OF AN AGING POPULATION

Objective. In this retrospective study of an elderly population cohort living in a defined Swedish rural area, the relationship between occu pation and survival as a measure of objective health was investigated . The cohort has been followed for 25 years. Method. On the basis of t he baseline socioeconomic interview from assessments performed when th e participants were 67 years of age, an index of active participation in daily occupation was devised. The index was used to investigate the covariation between generic everyday occupation and long-time surviva l Results. For the female participants, Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrat ed differences in survival between the ''less active'' and ''more acti ve'' and Cox regression survival analyses resulted in a significant co variance between occupation and survival. For the male participants, n o such differences were found. Conclusion. The significant results for the women implied support for the cove assumption of occupational the rapy that a relationship exists between occupation and health. The lac k of differences in survival among more active and less active men dem onstrates the complexity of studying occupation.