The role of marriage in the life satisfaction and mortality association at older ages: age and sex differences

Spousal health, marital satisfaction, and older Chinese adults' sleep: The moderating role of psychological resilience

PURPOSES

This study aims to examine the moderating role of psychological resilience in the association between two common marital relationship stressors (poor spousal health and low marital satisfaction) and sleep (sleep quality and sleep duration) among older adults in China.

METHODS

This study used four waves of data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (2008-2018) (N = 8769), and mixed-effects logistic models were used.

RESULTS

Poor spousal health and low marital satisfaction were independently associated with increased odds of poor sleep quality and short sleep duration, and decreased odds of long sleep duration. Greater psychological resilience was associated with increased odds of good sleep quality and decreased odds of short sleep duration, but had no significant effect on long sleep duration. In addition, psychological resilience moderated the odds of poor spousal health and low marital satisfaction on the risk of short sleep duration among older Chinese adults.

CONCLUSION

The findings provide novel evidence for the increased importance of marital stress and psychological resilience on sleep health in later life. Policy interventions are needed to support vulnerable older adults who experience poor spousal health and/or low marital satisfaction.

Enhancing understanding of healthy aging based on time-varying dependencies among multidimensional health, life satisfaction, and health behaviors of older adults aged 60 years and over

BACKGROUND

Healthy aging is a process of not only achieving good health but also increasing the life satisfaction of older adults aged 60 years and over, in which health behaviors play an important role. There is a lack of research on the time-varying dependencies between health, life satisfaction, and health behaviors, impeding a deeper understanding of healthy aging.

PURPOSE

To develop an integrated framework for modeling the interrelationships among the components of healthy aging between multiple time slices.

METHODS

Based on the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Living Survey (CLHLS) data in the three waves of 2011/2012, 2014, and 2017/2018, Bayesian network and dynamic Bayesian network are jointly employed to study the relationships among the components of healthy aging within one time slice, as well as to explore the time-varying dependencies among the components between time slices.

RESULTS

The results of structure learning reveal the direction of effects between different dimensions of health, with mental health and social health affecting physical health and self-rated health affecting both physical and mental health. In addition, health behaviors are found to affect mental health and social health, while self-rated health can influence life satisfaction. The parameters learned from the data show the magnitude and direction of concurrent effects, one-period lagged effects and two-period lagged effects between the factors, which find that the time-varying dependencies vary but are generally positive, long-term, and accumulative over time. In addition, the results of autoregressive effects show the positive predictive effects of health and life satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

It confirms the influence pathway from health behaviors to multidimensional health to life satisfaction, and the time-varying dependencies among the components of healthy aging, which facilitates a deeper understanding of healthy aging. Combining the results of autoregressive effects and descriptive statistics, it further indicates that healthy aging is a comprehensive result arising from interactions of multiple factors. Policymakers should guide older adults aged 60 years and over to adopt healthier behaviors and ensure the long-term sustainability and continuity of policies.

Pet ownership and cognitive frailty among Chinese rural older adults who experienced a social loss: Is there a sex difference?

BACKGROUND

The loss of a spouse (widowed or divorced) is one of the most common forms of social loss in older adults. However, evidence is limited regarding whether social loss is associated with cognitive frailty. Maintaining pets has become increasingly popular. Despite its health benefits, little is known about whether pet ownership can buffer cognitive frailty in older adults facing social loss. Here, we examined the role of pet ownership in the relationship between social loss and cognitive frailty among males and females older adults living in rural China.

METHODS

A total of 2638 rural older adults were analysed. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to explore risk or protective factors associated with cognitive frailty. Participants were categorised into four groups according to social loss and pet ownership assessment: (i) no social loss + own pet, (ii) no social loss + no pet, (iii) social loss + own pet, and (iv) social loss + no pet. Binary logistic regression was also performed to examine the interaction effects of social loss and pet ownership on cognitive frailty stratified by sex.

RESULTS

Regardless of pet ownership, spousal loss was associated with cognitive frailty for men and women. Female participants who experienced loss without a pet had a significantly higher risk of cognitive frailty. However, we did not observe a significant association between pet ownership and cognitive frailty among men who experienced loss.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight the buffering effect of pet ownership on cognitive frailty in older women experiencing social loss. This implies that targeted support for older adults of different sexes who experienced social losses may be effective in preventing cognitive frailty in rural China.