Sedentary Mexican American elder women: Self-rated health, perceived symptoms and medical problems

OBJECTIVE(S): The purpose of this study was to describe self-rated health, current symptoms, and medical problems in a group of sedentary elder Mexican American women. METHOD(S): A descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized to describe a convenience sample of Mexican American women aged 67.2±9.3 years who were primarily married (41.2%, n=28) or widowed (29.4%, n=20), retired or not working (71.9%, n=46), had grade school (41.2%, n=28) or high school education (32.4%, n=22), and were born in the U.S. (55.9%, n=38) or in Mexico (44.1%, n=30). RESULT(S): Women reported "definitely true" (10.8%, n=7) and "mostly true" (55.4%, n=36) to "my health is excellent" and "definitely true" (20%, n=13) and "mostly true") to "1 have been feeling bad lately" (43.1, n=28). Participants reported more symptoms than medical problems (6.7±4.4; 4.5±2.4). CONCLUSION(S): Continued investigation of elder Mexican American women is essential, as they are growing in number and their health has significance to our health care delivery system and to the nation at large.