Difference in subjective well‐being between ethnic Korean and Japanese elderly residents in an urban community in Japan

Abstract

Background:The ethnic Korean community in Japan has witnessed the increasing aging of their population structure. The purpose of our study was to clarify the differences in standards of living between elderly ethnic Korean and elderly Japanese populations living in Japan, and to examine whether there is any difference in subjective well-being between the two populations. Methods:We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey that consisted of items addressing ethnicity, age, gender, literacy, living conditions, mental health, "sense of purpose in life", activities of daily living (ADL), medical history, quality of life (QOL), and receipt of pension benefits and public assistance; the participants were 425 elderly people (ethnic Korean residents in Japan, n = 204; Japanese, n = 221) aged 65 and older living in a community in Osaka City. Findings from the two groups were compared using the Student's t-test and the c 2 test. We also employed multiple linear regression analysis. Results:We found that the ethnic Korean group had less formal education (P < 0.001), lower ADL (P < 0.05) and QOL (P < 0.001), higher illiteracy (P < 0.05) and depression rates (P < 0.001), and a higher prevalence of hypertension, myocardial infarction and diabetes mellitus than the Japanese group. Ethnicity was a significant variable for subjective wellbeing in simple linear regression analysis. After adjusting for literacy, absence of sense of purpose in life and mental health in multiple regression analysis, ethnicity remained a significant variable. Conclusions:The present findings indicate that ethnic Korean elderly have poor health and social situations compared with the Japanese group, and that there was a difference in subjective well-being between the two ethnic groups.

Mental well-being of international migrants to Japan: a systematic review

“…Two studies enrolled non-pregnant migrants41 42 and eight exclusively analysed mothers 43–50. The remaining nine studies were of general migrant populations of a single (n=5) or various (n=4) nationalities 51–59. There were 10 studies specifically examining Brazilians of Japanese descent, making them the most studied nation-specific migrant subgrouping in terms of mental well-being 60–70…”

Purpose in Life in Older Adults: A Systematic Review on Conceptualization, Measures, and Determinants

“…Overall, the evidence suggests female gender, marital status (married) higher education, and income are determinants of PIL. [48] Subjective well being Ottenbacher (2007) [49] Self-acceptance Positive Relation Environmental Mastery Personal Growth Krause (2009) [51] Self-rated Heath/fewer functional disabilities Mortality Ferguson (2010) [52] Optimism Perception of control (mediates relation between optimism and PIL) Hedberg (2010) [53,54]…”

“…Seven studies (five with low and two with moderate RoB) reported health status to be associated with PIL [26,45,51,60,66,75,80]. Two studies [46,48] showed an association of well-being with PIL and life satisfaction [69,78]. Life satisfaction is a concept that is linked to hedonic well-being [89].…”

Health Literacy and Happiness: A Community-based Study

“…At the level of the individual, Moon and Mikami (2007) studied the association between SWB and literacy using a population of ethnic Korean and Japanese elderly residents in Japan. They used a visual analogue scale to assess SWB and classified participants as illiterate if they answered no to all of the following three questions: ''Are you able to fill out forms for your pension?…”

“…A search in PsycINFO 1 using keywords ''happiness'' and ''literacy'' produced only five citations (Beckham 1929;Price 2000;Kirkcaldy et al 2004;Lysaker et al 2004;Mindes and Kronenberg 2005), and only one of them actually explored the association between the two constructs. Outside of psychology, related issues have been explored by sociologists (Mwansa 1995) and gerontologists (Moon and Mikami 2007). Other than that, the link appears to be largely unstudied.…”