The study examined social network types in a sample of 1,005 older Chinese adults in Hong Kong and the networks' relations to subjective well-being. Given the nature of kinship in Chinese society, we broke down social support provision by closeness of blood ties (immediate kin, distant kin, and non-kin). Using K-means cluster analysis, we identified 5 network types: diverse, friend focused, restricted, family focused, and distant family. The latter was characterized by few immediate kin but mostly distant kin. Diverse and family-focused networks were most beneficial to well-being, whereas restricted networks were least. Distant family networks were associated with only marginally lower well-being than family-focused networks and were comparable to friend-focused networks. Results suggested the importance of the extended family in support provision for Chinese older adults, especially in the absence of immediate kin and friends. Implications of the present findings for other cultural groups are discussed.

No abstract

This study fills the gap of literature review in the field of successful aging among non-Western older people. It identifies predictors of self-reported successful aging for living-alone older Chinese people with a relatively low socioeconomic status. Also, it records these respondents' typical interpretations of the concept of successful aging in their own words. This study employed a single-item, subjective approach to enable elderly respondents to define their own successful aging. It made use of an open-ended question to collect respondents' interpretations of the concept of successful aging. This study successfully interviewed, at home, 109 randomly selected older Chinese people living alone in two public housing estates. The response rate was 75.6%. Life satisfaction, sex, self-reported health status, satisfaction with living environment and major source of income were crucial predictors of these older Chinese people's self-reported successful aging. The explanatory power was 50.9%. Several typical interpretations of the concept of successful aging obtained from these respondents were categorized into the following groups: (1) health-related issues, (2) financial issues, (3) personal issues, (4) family issues, (5) psychological issues, and (6) housing issues. Many of their interpretations were consistent with some of this study's predictors. Living-alone, relatively deprived older Chinese respondents' self-reported successful aging seems to focus more on subjective predictors than on objective ones. Their interpretations of the concept of successful aging are culturally and socio-economically oriented. These older people's cognitive assessment of their successful aging is thus largely a personal experience of their daily lives.

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This study reports the epidemiology of urinary incontinence (UI) and its impact on the social lives of older Chinese people in Hong Kong, a modern city in China. It also examines the relationship between sex and this impact, as well as the extent of UI in a convenience sample of 101 sufferers aged 60 or older. This study was cross-sectional and used face-to-face interviews with a structured questionnaire. A number of findings concur with studies conducted in Western countries. Prevalence of UI increased with adult age, and it affected women more than men. UI had a negative impact on 86.1% of the incontinent respondents. There were no significant differences between men and women in the duration of UI, the level of UI, or health status. Out of the nine impacts on social lives, only one showed a significant difference between older men and women: "restriction on opportunities to participate in social activities." Statistically, men tended to report more negative impacts than women. More than 80% of the respondents were affected by their UI. The impact of UI on social lives was basically the same for men and women, though men reported significantly more social impacts than did women. However, this study does not support the claim that the social life of those who reported more social impacts was worse than that of those who reported fewer.