Centenarians’ Marital History and Living Arrangements: Pathways to Extreme Longevity

Poulain, Michel; Herm, Anne

doi:10.1093/geronb/gbv082

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The results of our study confirm that in addition to marital status, mortality risk in old age is also associated with LAs (H1) as earlier stated by Staehelin et al, (2012) and Herm et al, (2015). Distinguishing by LA in addition to marital status discloses more variations in mortality risk especially between the never-married and widowed persons living alone, with others or in institutional LAs.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…At earlier old ages being married and living with a spouse is also the most favourable LA for women. But with increasing age mortality between the different LAs converges and could even cross over at the oldest ages (Poulain, Herm, 2015). No research has yet demonstrated such a phenomenon explicitly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LAs not only better reflect the de facto situation in relation to the availability of support, but a change of LAs is often linked to health deterioration, unlike marital status. Accordingly, LAs may capture in a different and complementary way differences in the mortality risk related to family and co-residence with regard to the availability of support and primary caregiving in old age (Koskinen et al, 2007;Staehelin et al, 2012;Herm et al, 2015). Complementing LAs with marital status can show more explicitly with whom a person lives, the family links with coresidents, and the kind of support that might be expected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Koskinen et al, (2007) suggested that a gender-age interaction exists between survival and LAs, and that the gender gap becomes less important at older ages. The excess mortality risk among men living alone has been found to be remarkably high from the mid-adult years (Martikainen et al, 2005) through age 65 to 80 but decreases with increasing age and disappears after age 80 (Staehelin et al, 2012;Poulain, Herm, 2015). Old Belgian men have a better chance of living longer when they are living with a spouse, while old women's lives are prolonged by living alone (Herm et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mortality risk by living arrangements for the elderly Belgian population

Poulain¹,

Dal²,

Herm³

2016

rqj

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RésuméObjectifs : Le risque de décéder aux âges élevés est associé avec l’état matrimonial, mais également avec la situation de ménage de la personne considérée (avec qui une personne vit). Cette étude analyse comment l’association entre situation de ménage et risque de décéder varie en fonction de l’âge et du sexe. Données et méthodes : Nous utilisons des données extraites du Registre national belge concernant la situation de ménage de plus de 3 millions de personnes âgées de 60 ans et plus, ob-servées du 1er janvier 1991 au 31 décembre 2010. Tout d’abord nous calculons et comparons les probabilités annuelles de décéder pour les personnes selon les différentes situations de ménage. Ensuite nous construisons des tables de mortalité mul-ti-états en utilisant les probabilités annuelles de transition entre différentes situations de ménage et ce, afin de reconstituer les trajectoires de situation de ménage. Résultats : Nos résultats confirment l’effet protectif associé au fait de vivre en couple marié, mais ils montrent également que vivre seul aux âges plus élevés devient favo-rable à la survie. Un croisement apparaît entre les risques de décéder de ceux vivant seuls et ceux vivant avec d’autres personnes, mais pas avec leur conjoint. Toutefois de fortes différences ressortent selon le sexe. Enfin vivre en ménage collectif est largement défavorable pour la survie par comparaison à tous les types de ménages privés et ce, pour les deux sexes. Discussion : La façon dont le risque de décéder varie selon la situation de ménage est différente selon le sexe et diminue avec l’âge de fa-çon relative. Parmi d’autres explications, le rôle sélectif de l’état de santé est majeur, tout comme le soutien du conjoint qui est, dans la plupart des cas, le premier donneur de soin. Selon cette perspective, la différence d’espérance de vie en santé entre hommes et femmes et la différence d’âges entre conjoints pourraient contribuer à expliquer les différences du risque de décéder selon la situation de ménage entre les hommes et les femmes. Nos résultats sont importants dans le cadre des politiques sociales relatives aux personnes âgées et plus particulièrement pour l’évaluation des besoins futurs de nos populations vieillissantes.AbstractObjectives: Mortality risk in old age is associated with both marital status and living arrangements (with whom a person is living). This study analyses how the association between living arrangements and mortality risk varies by age and gender. Data and methods: We use a dataset extracted from the Belgian national register for the population aged 60 years and over, from 1 January 1991 to 31 December 2010, that includes more than three million persons and describes their living arrangements. First we compute and compare single-year probabilities of death for each living arrangement. Then, in order to recompose the living arrangement trajectories, we construct multistate life tables using annual probabilities of the transitions between successive living arrangements. Results: Our results confirm the protective effect of living with a spouse, and also show that at older ages living alone becomes advantageous. A crossover occurs in the mortality risks of those living alone and those living with others (not with a spouse), but large differences appear between the genders. Institutional living arrangements are largely detrimental for survival compared with private living arrangements for both genders. Discussion: The variation of mortality risk by living arrangements is gender-specific and decreases by age in relative terms. Among possible explanations, the selective role of health is paramount, as well as the presence of a spouse, who is the primary caregiver in most cases. According to this perspective, the gender gap in healthy life expectancy and the age difference between spouses contribute to explaining the gender differences. Our findings are highly relevant to social policies and the social discourse pertaining to the future needs of the elderly within the context of population ageing.

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Section: Summary and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Mortality risk by living arrangements for the elderly Belgian population

Poulain¹,

Dal²,

Herm³

2016

rqj

Self Cite

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“…Centenarians have long been regarded as a unique population because their longevity offers an important resource for studying healthy aging (Perls et al, 1999;Richmond, Law, & Kay-Lambkin, 2011) and the complex interactions among multiple pathological changes which concertedly affect the manifestation of clinical symptoms (Tanprasertsuk et al, 2019). While the centenarians studies are limited, the existing findings indicate that ADL independence in centenarians are affected by sensory functioning (Martin et al, 2018), race, age, education, self-reported health (Poon et al, 1992), and living arrangement (Davey et al, 2010;Mao & Han, 2018;Martin et al, 2013;Poulain & Herm, 2016). Cognition was found to affect ADL independence among centenarians in Japan (Arai et al, 2014), but others suggested that maintaining a good level of cognition was not sufficient to achieve IADL independence (Motta et al, 2008) and the prevalence of cognitive impairment in centenarians is reduced (Andersen et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing functional status and its correlates in Chinese centenarians: A cross‐sectional study

Huang

Chen

Zhou

et al. 2020

Nursing & Health Sciences

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Factors affecting independence in basic and instrumental activities of daily living have been established in older adults, but not centenarians. The purpose of this study was to examine the state and factors affecting activities of daily living independence in centenarians who resided in Guangxi Province, China. A cross‐sectional design was used. Activities of daily living, physical activity, mobility, and physical performance were measured by the Population Study of ChINese Elderly study instruments, and demographics and cognition were assessed. Of the 228 participants, 57% were independent in basic activities of daily living and 5.7% in instrumental activities of daily living. Stepwise regression showed physical activity, cognition, calf circumference, and self‐reported health were associated with basic activities of daily living. Physical activity, mobility, cognition, and physical performance were correlated with instrumental activities of daily living. In conclusion, the Chinese centenarians showed impaired instrumental activities of daily living but mostly maintained basic functioning. Physical activity and cognition were associated with activities of daily living independence.

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Longevity Areas and Mass Longevity

Hoh

Feng

et al. 2021

Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging

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Centenarians’ Marital History and Living Arrangements: Pathways to Extreme Longevity

Cited by 19 publications

References 27 publications

Mortality risk by living arrangements for the elderly Belgian population

Mortality risk by living arrangements for the elderly Belgian population

Analyzing functional status and its correlates in Chinese centenarians: A cross‐sectional study

Longevity Areas and Mass Longevity

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