Diabetes mellitus is associated with poor self-rated health in olders compared to other chronic conditions

Materials and methods This is a cross-sectional study, with older adults (>60 anos), users of the Unified System of Health. The sample was held in multiple stages, from the Health Districts of Goiânia-GO. Data were collected from December 2008 to March 2009. Self-rated health was dichotomized in self-rated good health (very good/good/fair) and bad (poor/very poor). Chronic diseases were identified through the responses to the question: “Which diseases the doctor has said that you have?” The relationship between self-rated poor health and the chronic conditions were explored through the prevalence ratio (PR). Multivariate analysis was performed using Poisson regression with hierarchical analysis. Were included in this analysis the variables with value p <0.20. The tests were performed in STATA 12.0.