Living Arrangements and Physical and Mental Health among Older Adults in Lingxi County, China

• In Event: 598 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Health and Well-Being in Asia

Abstract

Using survey data collected in summer and fall of 2014 from the Lingxi County in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, this study examines how living arrangements among older adults are associated with their self-rated health and self-reported physical and mental health. Following previous operationalization, the sample participants were classified into six types based on the number and identity of the cohabitants: unmarried persons living alone, married persons living alone, married persons living with spouse only, unmarried persons living with children, married persons living with children only, and married persons living with spouse and children. ‘‘Unmarried’’ in this paper referred to current status and included all types of non-married persons: widowers and the divorced. Health outcomes included self-rated health, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and number of diseases. We have not finished data cleaning and construction and plan to finish the data work within a month and start data analysis right after that.

Authors

• Ming Wen, University of Utah

• Kim M. Korinek, University of Utah

• Yiqing Yang, University of Utah