Ageing in Asia, societal and family support

This study aims to identify and evaluate the contents of ageism and to develop instrument of ageism. Going further, it intends to utilize these measures for reviewing effect factors of ageism. The current study describes multidimensional view of ageism toward aging and the elderly. After pre-test and review of professionals, 31 items was constructed. Data were obtained from KGSS Survey of 1535 participants. The sample was randomly divided into two groups to test reliability and validity of the scale. Finally, the 23-items with seven factors were suggested, based on the internal reliability and exploratory factor analysis with the first group. Another group was conducted confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed that the final 21-item scale with seven factors had a good model fit. And it explored effect factors of ageism in Korea using 21 measures developed herein. It looked at how ageism was influenced by gender, age, family relationship, educational background, economic activity, health, region, age norm, contacts with the elderly, and degree of happiness on ageism. Women revealed stronger ageism than men, and ageism became weaker in case of better health, greater happiness, and more contact with the elderly.

Living arrangements

This study investigates the availability of children as intergenerational care givers for elderly parents. Children are the elderly’s main resources and care givers due to increasing number and proportion of ageing population with insufficient social welfare in Thailand. However, an evidence of intergenerational support within families is barely found, while the declining potential support ratio indicating the vulnerable social support of tax system was reported. This study, therefore, analyzed longitudinal data collected in a rural area in the northeastern Thailand to show the availability of children living with their parents in the village by comparing between two generations. Matrix operation through kinship network was deployed to find the relationship between female elderly parents and their children. In addition, multivariate regression was used to predict factors affecting the availability of children living in the village. A result revealed that, in 2000, the percentage of women with son living in the village was not different between women in generation 1 and 2, but the percentage of the generation-2 women with daughter dramatically dropped about 18 percent. Most existing children in the village are in school age or work in the agricultural sector, which has the highest rate of out-migration from this region.

The elderly share of China’s population is projected to grow well beyond the capacity of the nation’s social security system. Meanwhile, family care is being challenged by a decline in fertility and an increase in migration from rural to urban areas. This paper examines the short-, mid-, and long-term effects of family support on elderly well-being in rural China, using four-wave panel data on 1,456 persons aged 60 and above in the Chaohu region of China. Findings showed that compared with living alone, being coresident with others lowered the mortality risk of several chronic diseases; but being coresident with adult children increased the mortality risk of cardiovascular diseases, though it was associated with a higher quality of life in the short and middle term. Children’s educational attainment and financial support increased the quality of life except for an increased risk of new incidence of cardiovascular disease in the middle term.

In this paper we focus on elderly disability in China using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) national baseline, which was fielded in 2011/12 and defines disability by international standard ADLs and IADLs questions and contains detailed care-giving and family information. We estimate the magnitude of disability among older Chinese and examine resources available for their care, the current pattern of care, and job division between children. Such research has not been possible before due to data limitations. We find that 23% of those 60 and older are disabled and need care; this amounts to about 40 million nationwide. However, only 86% received care. In addition, whether or not care is provided for the disabled elderly is significantly related to the wellbeing of them. Furthermore, spouse is the largest source of care giver, especially for men, followed by children. Finally, in accordance with the Chinese tradition, sons are the dominant care-giver but daughters are increasingly important.

The latest statistics and population analysis presented by the Statistical Centre of Iran have provided a necessary tool for planners and authorities of the country to pay attention to population ageing and to planning for that as an important demographic issue.
Calculating and presenting population and ageing indicators of the country according to the data of population and housing census , this paper tries to draw attention of the public to the need for immediate effective planning for welfare of older people of the country while focusing on the remained time limitation so that necessary interest and motivations for provision of needed supporting resources for that time are created.

Comparison of Living Arrangements and Family Support for the Urban Elderly
in Incheon-Gyeonggi, Korea and Shandong, China

Abstract

Ik Ki Kim (Dongguk University)
ikki@dongguk.edu


This study tries to compare the differences of the living arrangements of the elderly and thus show the different patterns of the family support for the elderly in Korea and China. China has a huge population with diverse characteristics, while Korea is a small country with homogeneity. For a more sophisticated analysis, this study selects the urban elderly of Incheon-Gyeonggi Province in Korea and Shandong Province in China.

This study is based on analysis of the data from the same questionnaire for the elderly in Chinese and Korean cities. Korean data (2,010) for the Incheon-Gyeonggi Province were collected in Incheon Special city and 17 cities in Gyeonggi Province. This study employs frequency distribution, cross-tabulation and logistic regression analysis for the statistical analysis.

Increasing elderly people from 121 million to 323 million by 2050 in India is posing a threat on growing economy. This paper seeks to examine the household living arrangements of elderly (60+) people and its correlation of budgetary expenditure made towards social security for elderly people in India. It is observe that, 60% elderly people living households do not have proper sewerage systems, 57.9% use poor quality cooking fuel, and 78.6% do not have access to running water in the home. State-wide variation indicates that, demographic advanced State Kerala have good household living arrangements than economic advanced State Punjab and demographic backward State Rajasthan. Study also is observed that aging (60+) population in India has increased 120 percentage points from 1991-2011 however, the percent of social security and welfare expenditure out of total budgeted expenditure has increased only 96 percentage points and medical and public health and water supply and sanitation expenditure has decreased two percentage points. This declining social security measures is worried cause of concern. Finally, study sought concerted effort is required to improve the public expenditure on social security measures to curb the growing household living arrangement for elderly people in India.