Social contact, socioeconomic status, and the health status of older Malaysians.

We tested the applicability of the stress buffering hypothesis in a developing country setting with data from the Senior Sample of the Malaysian Family Life Survey-2. Using ordered logistic regression methods, we examined whether having daily contact with adult children moderates the effect of low socioeconomic status (SES; conceptualized as a chronic stressor) on self-assessed health status. We found that low SES is associated with poorer health for all three ethnic groups--Malay, Chinese, and Indian. Further, for Malays and Chinese, we found that the negative effects of low SES on health tend to be stronger for older people with less frequent contact with adult children than for those who have daily contact. These results provide general support for the buffering model and suggest that, as found in developed countries, active intergenerational relationships in developing country settings may have protective effects on the health of older people experiencing chronic stressors.

Disability in older adults. 1: Prevalence, causes, and consequences.

The effects of disability on an aging population's health and welfare are an important issue in gerontological research. The rapid growth of the elderly population and increases in longevity have led to an ongoing debate about whether longer lives can be matched by longer active lives that are free from disability. After a detailed review of current disability literature, the authors discuss the impact of disability in the elderly, defining disability and reviewing three classes of disability--physical, mental, and social. Both subjective and objective disability measures are described, and disability trends and prevalence rates are reviewed and compared cross culturally, by gender, by age, and over time. The path from chronic disease to disability is described and the consequences of living with disability are discussed in terms of family burdens and the increased need for medical care.

Disability in older adults. 2: Physical activity as prevention.

In this 2nd article in the series on older adults (persons aged > or = 65 years), the role of physical activity in preventing disability associated with aging in the absence of specific illnesses is discussed, and different types of activities and the measures of outcome are described. Evidence for physical activity as a prevention measure is restricted to primary and secondary prevention because the application of physical activity for tertiary prevention of disability is limited. Chronic disease is considered in the context of its influence on disability only when physical activity offers some potential benefit to elderly persons.

Characteristics of the healthy worker effect: a comparison of male and female occupational cohorts.

The healthy worker effect (HWE) poses a serious methodological problem to investigators of occupational cohorts in that it may mask mortality excesses that result from occupational exposures. This problem is further complicated by the fact that the strength of the HWE generally varies according to sociodemographic, employment, and time-related factors. While the HWE has been well documented among numerous cohorts of male workers, little is known about its expression among female occupational workers. Follow-up mortality data on 44,154 employees from the Hanford nuclear facility for the period of 1944-1986 were examined using standardized mortality ratio (SMR) analysis to assess whether modifiers of the HWE were expressed differently in females than in males. Results of this analysis show that while the HWE was modified by race, age at hire, occupational class, and length of follow-up in both male and female cohorts, different patterns of modification emerged across the two subgroups. Learning about how gender differentiates expression of the HWE will help investigators more precisely assess the confounding effect of the HWE in studies of working cohorts. Therefore, this study's findings are relevant for designing and interpreting future occupational cohort studies.

Dependency status and happiness with old age on Java.

Using data from a survey of elderly persons on Java, we investigate the prevalence of dependency states (functional, economic, and residential) and the implications of dependency status for happiness with old age. Whereas being dependent is common in the later years, many older persons still have dependents. Dependency on kin is not a negative situation in this context, but having economic dependents appears to be burdensome. Gender, being able to provide an inheritance, and rural-urban residence moderate the relationship between dependency status and happiness.

Gender differences in economic well-being among the elderly of Java.

With populations aging rapidly in many developing nations, issues of economic dependency among the elderly are of increasing importance. Using data from a 1986 survey of the elderly on Java, Indonesia, I describe gender differences in economic well-being and identify characteristics associated with economic disadvantage. At both the individual and the household level, older women have fewer resources than older men. Even within categories of support (work income and remittances), women have lower levels of well-being. Gender differences in household-level economic well-being are due primarily to differences in household structure and in levels of skills. Gender differences in individual receipts (from all sources) are more complicated, but can be understood more clearly with reference to gender differences in skills levels (literacy, language, job skills), current work status and authority, and domestic authority.