Self-Reported Walking Difficulty Predicts Late-Life Mortality in Finnish War Veterans: Results from the Veteran 1992 Project Survey

Objectives To determine risk factors and their combinations that predict late‐life mortality. Design Postal questionnaire. Setting Veteran 1992 Project Survey. Participants Finnish Second World War veterans living in Finland (177,989 men, 48,745 women), with a participation rate of 93%. Measurements Main outcomes were total, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and accident and violence (AAV) mortality. Absolute 10‐year mortality risks for total mortality with combinations of different risk factors were calculated. Results The strongest predictor of total mortality was self‐reported walking difficulty (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.74, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.71–1.76 in men without disability, HR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.58–1.67 in men with disability, HR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.57–1.65 in women). The highest HRs of CVD mortality were for self‐reported walking difficulty among men without disability (HR = 1.98, 95% CI = 1.95–2.02) and among men with disability (HR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.82–1.94). In women, the highest HR for CVD mortality was for multimorbidity (HR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.79–1.96). For AAV mortality, the highest HRs were for falls in men and age in women. A combination of walking difficulty and multimorbidity had the highest absolute 10‐year mortality risk for total mortality (0.730 in men without disability, 0.729 in men with disability, 0.487 in women). Conclusion Self‐reported walking difficulty was the most important predictor of total mortality in all veteran groups and for CVD mortality in men. The study demonstrates the importance of self‐reported walking difficulty and multimorbidity as markers of high mortality risk in Finnish war veterans.