Widowhood and self‐rated health among Chinese elders: The effect of economic condition

Abstract

Objective: To examine the mediating effect of economic condition (income, work status, self-rated

Gender and Widowhood: Disparity in Health Status and Health Care Utilization Among the Aged in India

“…Aged widows appear to be a group suffering from the greatest systematic disadvantage. Our results support research findings that show a greater effect of marital status on the health of women as compared to men (Krochalk et al, 2008;Sudha et al, 2006). In other words, our findings show that married persons have a relatively higher hospitalization rate, confounding previous research which showed that married persons generally make less use of health care services and have lower hospitalization rates (Verburgge, 1979;Prigerson et al, 1999).…”

“…Although marriage has been associated with health advantages for both men and women, several studies have suggested gender differentials in its association with health, and generally, the positive influence on health has been found to be greater for men than for women (Hu & Goldman, 1990). Some other studies have found that women's perceived health and morbidity appear to be more sensitive than men to their marital status (Krochalk, Li, & Chi, 2008;Sudha et al, 2006). Furthermore, the pathways of health benefits from marital status have been widely noted to vary with gender; while women benefit via an increase in socioeconomic status, men benefit via an increase in social support (Hu & Goldman, 1990;Joung et al, 1997;Wyke & Ford, 1992;Zick & Smith, 1991).…”

Widowhood and the risk of psychiatric care, psychotropic medication and all-cause mortality: A cohort study of 658,022 elderly people in Sweden

“…Earlier studies have shown decreased levels of wellbeing, and self-rated health as well as increased levels of prescribed psychotropic medication (Arens, 1982(Arens, -1983Bennett, 2006;Charlton, Sheahan, Smith, & Campbell, 2001;Krochalk, Li, & Chi, 2008). Research by Zivin and Christakis (2007) showed that the death of a spouse increased the risk of the partner developing depression and mental health or substance abuse disorders.…”

“…Education is an indicator of immaterial resources, affecting many aspects of life such as financial status, lifestyle, social and psychological assets and cognitive abilities (Fors, 2010). Few studies have paid attention to the potential protective effect due to higher socioeconomic status and these indicate inconsistent results on the importance of education and income (Krochalk et al, 2008;Manor & Eisenbach, 2003;Martikainen & Valkonen, 1998).…”

Elderly widowhood in China

“…Previous studies on widowhood in China have also focused on analysing factors such as health (Krochalk, Li, & Chi, 2008;Li, Chi, Krochalk, & Xu, 2011), co-residence (Korinek et al, 2011), and depression (Li, Liang, Toler, & Gu, 2005;Zhang & Li, 2011). Several studies of widowed elderly in China have focused on economic factors, education, and poverty (Lin, 2007;Liu, 2011;Wei, 2011).…”