Gerontology Commons^™

The Concept Of Healthy Ageing In Hong Kong, Mei Lan, Mandy Chiu

Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of ‘Healthy Ageing’ in Hong Kong. The research attempts to explore the historical base from which ‘Healthy Ageing’ has been conceptualized in both Western and Chinese societies. This study also tries to provide an overview of literature that relevant to the ‘Healthy Ageing’ concept, and to provide an initial theoretical framework of ‘Healthy Ageing’ in a Hong Kong Chinese context.

This study mainly adopts a qualitative approach in exploring the meaning of the concept. Since that ‘Healthy Ageing’ is likely to be conceptualized from the concept of health and ageing, …

Changes In Functional Limitations And Survival Among The Elderly In Taiwan: 1993, 1996, And 1999, Zachary Zimmer, Linda G. Martin, Ming-Cheng Chang

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This paper focuses on changes in the prevalence of functional limitations among nationally representative samples of adults aged 65 and older in Taiwan as measured in 1993, 1996, and 1999. Using data from the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan, we investigate changes in difficulties walking and climbing stairs, two tasks that represent basic lower body movements that are less likely to be influenced by changes in living environments and social roles than are activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. Results are shown for both unadjusted prevalence rates and rates adjusted …

How Long Do We Live?, John Bongaarts, Griffith Feeney

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Period life expectancy is calculated from age-specific death rates using life table methods that are among the oldest and most fundamental tools of demography. These methods are rarely questioned, much less criticized. Yet changing age patterns of adult mortality in contemporary countries with high life expectancy provide a basis for questioning the conventional use of age-specific death rates and life tables. This paper argues that when the mean age at death is rising, period life expectancy at birth as conventionally calculated overestimates life expectancy. Estimates of this upward bias, ranging from 1.6 years for the United States and Sweden to …

Quality Of Life Of The Chinese Elderly In Hong Kong : Preliminary Findings From Two Focus Groups Studies, Cheung Ming, Alfred Chan, Sheung Tak Cheng, David Rosser Phillips

APIAS Monograph 專題論文

In addressing the issues of developing a culturally sensitive and elderly relevant measure of quality of life, the research teams resort to a multi-staged approach. The first is to take on an easier target group (i.e. those living in community and are reasonably mobile) in an attempt to develop an initial measure for the elderly people living in community. Assuming that this initial measurement will be largely applicable to the frail ones, an alternative version will be developed based on the modification of the former. So the first stage was a series of focus groups designed to exhaust meanings and …

The Elderly And Aids: Coping Strategies And Health Consequences In Rural Tanzania, Julia Dayton, Martha Ainsworth

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The elderly are often especially likely to be adversely affected by the death from AIDS of prime-aged adults. The authors use a longitudinal survey of households from northwestern Tanzania in 1991-94 to compare the activities and wellbeing of the elderly in households before and after the death of a prime-aged adult with those of the elderly in households that did not experience the death of an adult. A significant proportion of adults suffering from AIDS return to their parents’ home shortly before death. Time spent by the elderly performing household chores rises following an adult’s death, and their participation in …

Living Arrangements And Socio-Demographic Conditions Of Older Adults In Cambodia, Zachary Zimmer, Sovan Kiry Kim

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Since the takeover of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge in 1975, analysis of social conditions in the country has been lacking. Only recently has dependable socio-demographic data become available. We use some of these data to examine living arrangements and other socio-demographic conditions among Cambodia’s older population and compare results to those recently found in Thailand and Vietnam. On balance, living arrangements in Cambodia are similar to those in neighboring countries. Older adults are likely to be living with a grown child and in a variety of arrangements involving different family members. To determine gender preference for coresident children we …