Health and ageing in low, middle and high-income countries (2)

This study focuses on a comparative analysis of attitude towards ageing among people aged 40-59 living in Korea and Japan. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether people’s perceptions on one's own future life vary in two countries. We also describe leading factors that make Korean and Japanese middle-aged adults more or less concerned about their ageing. The data for this study are collected from the 2010 Korea General Social Survey (KGSS) and Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS). Three scales of attitude towards ageing were examined as our dependent variables: anxiety about poor health, loss of life and financial independence. Our hypothesis was that Koreans will have more negative attitude towards ageing due to relatively weak social welfare for the elderly compared to Japan and strong family ties which make the elderly dependent on their offspring. However, the findings show that Japanese middle-aged adults are significantly more concerned about their future life than Koreans. After adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, the difference between two countries became even greater. This study will attempt to address this result as following socioeconomic aspects: characteristics of Korean and Japanese middle-age, different social perceptions on education level and living area (urban/rural) in Korea and Japan.

Little is known about depression in older people in sub-Saharan Africa. Objectives: Examine the prevalence and correlates of depression; explore the relationship between depression and health perceptions in HIV-infected and-affected older people. Methods: In 2010, 422 participants aged 50+ were recruited into a cross- sectional study. A diagnosis of depressive episode was derived using Composite International Diagnostic Interview (Depression module) using the International Classification of Diseases diagnostic criteria and categorised as major (MDE) or brief (BDE). Results: Overall, 42.4% had a depressive episode (MDE: 22.7%; BDE: 19.7%). MDE was significantly higher in HIV-affected than HIV-infected participants; the opposite was the case for BDE. Women (aOR3.04), government grant receipients(aOR0.34), and care-givers (aOR2.37) were significantly associated depression. Participants with a depressive episode were 2–3 times more likely to report poor health perceptions. Study limitations include the cross-sectional design, limited sample size and possible selection biases. Conclusions: Major depressive episodes were higher in HIV- affected than HIV-infected participants. Psycho-social support similar to that of HIV treatment programmes around HIV-affected older people may be useful in reducing their vulnerability to depression.

This paper uses a parametric stochastic frontier approach (coming from the economic literature) to explore the impact of the occupational activities and the living conditions in the slums on the health performance among the adult population aged 50 and up. We measure the health performance using the disability scores from the WHO. In our estimation strategy, we first consider the WHODAS II – 12 items score and thereafter simultaneously analyze several dimensions of health state description (cognitive, mobility, pain and discomfort, sleep and affect, etc.). We use individual data from the WHO’s Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) in partnership with the INDEPTH network. The SAGE-INDEPTH survey provides longitudinal data on ageing in various Demographic surveillance sites (DSS) in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana. This survey collects information on the older persons’ health profiles, economic activities, cares and supports provided and received, and a broad range of self-reported assessments of health and well-being.

This paper investigates the relationship between positive attitude and the remaining time lived healthily and happily over individual’s life cycle for Brazil and Mexico. Building on principles derived from theories of reasoned action and subjective norms, coupled with the multidimensional concept of attitude from Cacioppo & Berntson (1994), we estimate an empirical measure of multidimensional attitude based on three levels of perception: the self, the relations to social networks, and the surrounding environment. Our empirical measure of multidimensional attitude (estimated by means of GoM models) is then used to evaluate differences in healthy (HLE) and happy life expectancy (GLE) over the individual’s life cycle (estimated by Sullivan Method) according to the degree of one’s attitude. At last, we apply demographic decomposition techniques to estimate to what extent morbidity compression is happening in each country and how sensitive this trend is to attitudinal levels. Using the World Values Survey (Brazil 1997, 2006; Mexico 1996, 2005), we find evidence of a positive association between positive attitude and HLE and GLE, although the association is not linear over individual’s life cycle for health. Brazilians experience higher proportion of time happy and in good health then Mexicans, regardless of attitudinal status.

The aim of the study is to investigate relations between religion, health and coping in ageing societies. We focus our work on seniors in chosen European countries. Increasing proportion of older people can have a significant impact of health conditions and quality of life of those populations. Many seniors have health conditions that can impair the quality of life, including disabling conditions, depressions and mental health problems.
We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which gives representative data on non-institutionalized sample of the 50 plus population in Europe and detailed information on health, work, household-situation, cognition and financial situation.
Tentative results suggest that both being less religious and having high cognitive function seems to be associated with lower risk of depression. However, among those who have experienced a heart attack higher religiosity is positively correlated with an absence of depression. These findings hold for all regions in Europe and for both women and men.