Living arrangements and family support of older people

India lacks adequate social security and institutional set up to support the growing proportion and number of aged population. Therefore, family and relatives continue to provide support to the health and well being of the elderly. This paper attempts to examine differential in treatment seeking and the factors responsible for such differential among the elderly from similar economic group but with different living arrangements using NSSO 60th round (25.0 sob-round) data. Gini concentration index has been used to find out the intra-economic group inequality in treatment seeking due to living arrangement. Decomposition analysis has been done to find out the importance of living arrangement and other factors of treatment seeking behaviour. Treatment seeking is highest among elderly living with spouse and other members and lowest among those live alone or with non-relatives. Sex and economic dependency do not play significant role in treatment seeking behaviour in middle and high MPCE households.

Vietnam is experiencing an increase in the share of the elderly population (people aged 60 and over) and profound social and economic changes at the same time. Co-residence with children is the traditional means of support for the elderly. Given the minimal coverage of formal care, concern has been voiced that the increasing old age dependency ratio and the strong flow of rural-urban labour migration among younger adults will threaten the viability of the traditional support system for the elderly. By analysing the secondary data of Vietnam (Housing) Living Standard Survey (VHLSS 1992-2010), Vietnam National Aging Survey 2011, and qualitative case study data, this paper aims to describe different living arrangements of the elderly and how these patterns have been shaped by the changing conditions.
The preliminary results show that while the majority of elderly live with children, this type of family support is changing. Elderly living alone or with their spouse only is increasing. Quasi-co-residence, rotation residence, or living with grandchildren can be regarded as coping mechanisms to maintain inter-generational support under changing conditions. Living in private or state institution covers only small proportion of the richest and poorest sections of the elderly population.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of severe disability, which in turn creates a significant need for personal care among older adults. Children are the most important source of informal care among older adults. To facilitate care, family members may need to relocate following an adverse cardiovascular event of older adults. To measure proximity changes in response to older adults’ cardiovascular event, we explore the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal survey of a nationally representative sample of US older adults. We identify new cardiovascular events of stroke, myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure among older adults who did not have a history of cardiovascular disease. And, we measured changes in residential proximity between older adults and their children by utilizing HRS geographic information. Results from clustered multivariate logistic regression and propensity score matching method suggest that having cardiovascular event increases the two-year predicted probability of children and adult parents moving closer to each other from 9.2% to 12.5%. Families are especially likely to migrate in response to a cardiovascular event if the older person experiencing the event is a woman, has a daughter, or has at least one child who does not work.

Using data from a survey of four towns in Yi County of Anhui Province conducted in 2008, the paper analyzes older unmarried men’s expectations for their old age in rural China. It shows that marriage status is a significant determinant affecting expectations of support in old-age of rural men from perspectives of both birth cohort and migration experiences. Compared with married men, the older or never-migrated unmarried men are more likely to expect receiving the government aid and living in geracomium for old age, which is consistent with the hierarchical compensatory model that formal help becomes the last resort when the familial and non-familial sources of support are not available. Neither older unmarried men nor married men would see their siblings as their old-age supporters, and self-support by saving money or living alone become the important means in old-age expectations of the older unmarried men, especially for those who are relatively younger and ever-migrated.

Objectives: Prevalence of unmet and undermet needs for personal assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental ADLs among older Canadians with disabilities is examined. Characteristics that may differ between persons with met and unmet needs are also investigated.
Methods: Using the 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) data, eight ADLs and IADLs are examined. The overall prevalence of the population with unmet or undermet needs is calculated as well as the prevalence of met, undermet and unmet need for each activity. Binary and multinomial logistic regressions are performed, respectively, for the two models. The independent variables in the model include: age, sex, country of birth, living arrangements, number of surviving children, schooling level, region of residence, number of activities for which help is needed, and disability level.
Results: 503,000 older Canadians with a disability, with needs, and living in private households had at least one unmet or undermet need in 2006. Among them, 47.3% don’t receive all the help for 2 or more needs (activity). Highest prevalences of unmet/undermet needs are observed for heavy household chores and moving about. The number of needs, the disability severity, and to a lesser extent education, significantly increases the probability of having

The Canadian population is aging, which has long-term implications for economic growth and the demand for housing, health care, and other services. Elderly immigrants are a growing segment of Canada’s aging population. Canada’s aging population has also become more diverse because of immigration from Asia and other non-traditional (that is, non-European or North American) sources in recent decades. This research focuses on living arrangements of elderly immigrants in Canada. Studying the living arrangements of elderly immigrants is important as these affect levels of social support, dependence on welfare programs, health status, social isolation, general well-being, and other issues. We examine data from the 2006 Canadian census with three purposes. First, we present a portrait of living arrangements of elderly immigrants. Secondly, we examine the relationship of selected sociodemographic characteristics such as age at immigration, period of immigration, region of origin, gender, marital status, education, and home language with type of living arrangements. And finally, we discuss social and policy implications of living arrangements of elderly immigrants, including issues related to inter-generational relations, social and economic support, social integration, and wellbeing of elderly immigrants.

La dynamique démographique des Caraïbes est très particulière, notamment par la rapidité avec laquelle la population vieillit, un rythme des plus élevés par rapport aux autres régions du monde. Les enjeux cruciaux que sont ceux d’assurer la qualité de vie des aînés d’aujourd’hui et de demain ainsi qu’une gestion efficace de ces sociétés vieillissantes se doivent d’être abordés et pris en compte. Cette étude diffuse les résultats d'une analyse ciblée des caractéristiques sociodémographiques des personnes âgées de quatre États des Caraïbes (Antigua-et-Barbuda, Sainte-Lucie, Saint-Vincent-et-les-Grenadines et Trinité-et-Tobago) à partir des données de leur plus récent recensement. Ce portrait met une emphase particulière sur les conditions de vie, la santé et la participation sur le marché du travail des personnes âgées, soit sur les grands thèmes des trois objectifs du Plan d’action international sur le vieillissement de Madrid. Au niveau de la santé, les résultats montrent une forte prévalence des maladies chroniques des personnes âgées, surtout l’hypertension et l’arthrite. Les femmes semblent être plus vulnérables que les hommes. La fréquentation et l’accès aux établissements de santé diffèrent d’un pays à l’autre. Finalement, seulement deux aînés caribéens sur trois jouissent d’une assurance-santé convenable.

This study examines gender differences in the effects of household members (e.g., spouse, child, extended kin) on older adult’s social networks and social supports. As older men and women experience different expectations and obligations attached to their household roles, the same type of household members can be resources (connectors) for men and be costs (constraints) for women, and vice versa. Using data from the 2005-2006 National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), the study finds that a spouse connects older men to large social networks and more social support than single, but a spouse for women is only associated with more support. Coresident adult children and young relatives constrain married men for large networks, while adult children connect single older men to a large networks and more support. The results are the opposite for older women: adult children constrain single older women to have large networks while young relatives connect married older women. Findings provide additional insight into the processes through which gender differences in potential support providers emerge at older age.

According to intergeneration flow of wealth theory of J.C. Cadwell (1976), the decision of having high fertility in the developing countries is very rational from the point of view of the elderly as they are a long-lasting support system to their parents. With rapid modernization of our society children are no longer the fixed-deposit of support of elderly even in a country like India. Isolation and helplessness have become the part and parcel of life of elderly even in modern India. This paper is an effort to quantify the level of care and support provided by the children to the elderly of the country and how this finally affects their well-being through their subjective health. The data of the recent project of UNFPA, named “Building Knowledge Base on Aging in India” is being used. Multinomial logit estimation is used, where marginal effect shows that quality of care is fast decreasing and augurs an abject state of well-being of elderly. With the expected bulge of elderly population in the coming decades, government must take some steps in advance to combat with this situation. In the light of empirical results, some policy prescription has been suggested for benefit of the elderly.

Abstract
There has not been any study in India to understand the relationship between public and private inter-household transfers and the impact of such transfers on the livings standards of the older households. Part of the problem is the lack of adequate data; data sets containing both private transfer and public transfer are scarce. Therefore, the key contributions of this paper would be to take into account endogeneity of income and resource flows into the household; investigate the relationship between public and private transfers and assess the economic effects of transfers on the households. The study uses data from the survey titled ‘Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE)’ carried out by WHO and International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) in 2007 in six states of India namely Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The sample consists of 12, 198 households with at least one person aged 50 years and above. An appropriate econometric technique would be adopted to address the endogeneity of public transfer and income when estimating the determinants of private transfer. For the estimation of the incidence of poverty, household equivalent income that reflects total income and the number of children and adults in the household would be calculated by using OECD scale.