Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Managing Sensor Systems For Early Detection Of Mild Cognitive Impairment In Community Elderly: Lessons Learned And Future Work, Boon Thai Ng, Hwee-Pink Tan, Hwee Xian Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The aging population is a pertinent issue faced by governments globally. One of the most common and costly health issues associated with the aging population is cognitive decline, leading up to dementia. In this paper, we describe a non-intrusive, continuous and scalable system for early detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in the elderly, which enables early medical interventions to be provided. We focus on the system design and feature extraction of the sensor system, to validate our hypothesis of the use of sensor systems for early detection of MCI. Lessons learned from deploying the sensor system is presented, together …

Aging In Myanmar, John Knodel, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This spotlight provides an overview of thesituation of older persons in Myanmar, an under-studied country ofover-50-million population. Myanmar is of particular interest to researchersand policy makers, given its overall level of poverty and modestly rapidpopulation aging. Research on older persons, while increasing in recent years,remains sparse. Empirical evidence indicates that Myanmar older persons are inrelatively poorer health compared to those in neighboring countries. Many livein abject poverty and depend on their families for material support.Coresidence is very common and facilitates reciprocal exchanges acrossgenerations. Looking ahead, Myanmar confronts important challenges includingdemographic shifts that reduce availability of family support for older personsand …

Late-Life Widowhood In Developing Southeast Asia: Comparative Perspectives From Myanmar, Thailand, And Vietnam, Bussarawan Puk Teerawichitchainan, John Knodel

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We analyze recent aging surveys to examine the prevalence and correlates of widowhood among elderly in Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam and investigate how widowhood is associated with intergenerational support and old-age wellbeing. Widowhood is often associated with depressive symptoms, elevated mortality risk, and social-relationship changes. How one fares after spousal loss is nevertheless contingent on individual-level attributes, dyadic characteristics, and macro-social conditions. Thus, consequences likely vary across contexts. Most studies are conducted in western developed countries. Few existing Asia-focused research is primarily based on developed East Asia or China. Little is empirically known about the situation in non-western developing countries. …

Family Support For Older Persons In Thailand: Challenges And Opportunities, John Knodel, Bussarawan Puk Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Population aging and the wellbeing of older persons are major emerging challenges for families, communities, and government in Thailand as in much of Asia. Traditionally, support and care for the elderly are met within the family. Adult children are important providers of material support as well as other forms of assistance to their older-age parents. The state and communities typically provide limited care services for the older population. Currently, Thailand is facing demographic and socioeconomic changes that pose significant challenges for the roles that family members, especially adult children, play in providing support for the elderly. This paper empirically examines …

What Does Successful Aging Mean? Lay Perception Of Successful Aging Among Elderly Singaporeans, Qiushi Feng, Paulin Tay Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objectives: We explore the culturally specific meaning of successful aging in Singapore, an ethnically diverse city-state in Asia. We aim to investigate lay perceptions of successful aging among the elderly individuals in Singapore and further examine variations of these perceptions. Methods: We applied a mixed-method research design. Firstly, we conducted qualitative interviews with 49 elderly respondents, generating 12 main subjective components of successful aging. Next, we did a national survey with a sample of 1,540 local residents aged 50 to 69 years, in which respondents were asked to evaluate the importance of each subjective component of successful aging. We used …

Taking Action For Social Change, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Research at the SMU Lien Centre for Social Innovation is helping to better understand and respond to the needs of vulnerable communities in Singapore.

See the papers:

• Elderly population in Singapore: Understanding social, physical and financial needs
• Single-parent families in Singapore: Understanding the challenges of finances, housing and time poverty
• People with physical disabilities in Singapore: Understanding disabling factors in caregiving, education, employment and finances
• A handbook on inequality, poverty and unmet social needs in Singapore

Changes In Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults With Multiple Chronic Conditions: Role Of Positive And Negative Social Supports, Sangnam Ahn, Seonghoon Kim, Hongmei Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Depression severely affects older adults in the United States. As part of the social environment, significant social support was suggested to ameliorate depression among older adults. We investigate how varying forms of social support moderate depressive symptomatology among older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC). Data were analyzed using a sample of 11,400 adults, aged 65 years or older, from the 2006–2012 Health and Retirement Study. The current study investigated the moderating effects of positive or negative social support from spouse, children, other family, and friends on the association between MCC and depression. A linear mixed model with repeated measures …

Retirement Adequacy Of Mature Workers In Singapore, Rhema Vaithianathan, Stephen Hoskins

Research Collection School Of Economics

In the last decade, the Singapore resident population has grown older with more elderly and fewer younger people. As Singapore Department of Statistics noted, the proportion of residents aged 65 years and over has increased from 9% to 13% over the past ten years. There are now fewer working-age adults to support each resident aged 65 years and over as indicated by the falling resident old-age support ratio from 7.7 in 2007 to 5.1 in 2017. The support ratio is expected to halve to 2.5 by 2030. As Singaporeans are both living and working longer, it is vital for the …