The aim of the longitudinal study was the evaluation of the changing socio-medical conditions of the old citizens of Bialystok during a 5 year period of observation. The study was based on the analysis of 6 age/sex cohorts of 100 men and 100 women born in 1899, 1909, 1919. A stratified systematic sampling of the entire population of the city in the required generation was used. The survey was conducted twice, in 1979 and 1984, and employed a questionnaire prepared by the Editorial Board of the Comparative Study of Eleven Countries developed by WHO. The questionnaire included items concerning personal data, occupation, housing conditions, health status, functional ability, the use of health services, social activity and life satisfaction. The data allow us to consider aging in all its aspects — health status, life style, opinions and feelings of the elderly — according to age group (cross-sectional analysis) and according to the progression of chronological age in the same cohorts (longitudinal analys
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