Quality of Life in Older Adults: Benefits from Caring Services in Hong Kong

Many older adults are in need of care. Therefore, older people would generally benefit from the use of caring services, notably including home care, residential care, nursing, and medical services. The contributory factors underlying caring services tend to be a caring perspective that aspires to sustain older people’s social relationships and real-life involvement. To gauge the benefits from various social and health services, the present study relies on a large-scale survey of 3000 older adults in Hong Kong, using quality of life as a criterion. Results showed that an older adult who had used (ordinary or enhanced) home care services for a longer time turned out to have appreciably more improvement in quality of life. Besides, those who joined an interest group more frequently were higher in quality of life, including the health domain. On the other hand, frequent use of medical and meal-to-home services were signals that reflected problems detrimental to the older user’s quality of life. Despite this, the quality of clinics or hospitals, as perceived by the older adult, was the most beneficial. As such, caring services that foster older adults’ interests, cater to their health care needs, and embody quality can have principal contribution to their users’ quality of life.     

Quality of Life in Older Adults: Benefits from Caring Services in Hong Kong

Many older adults are in need of care. Therefore, older people would generally benefit from the use of caring services, notably including home care, residential care, nursing, and medical services. The contributory factors underlying caring services tend to be a caring perspective that aspires to sustain older peoples social relationships and real-life involvement. To gauge the benefits from various social and health services, the present study relies on a large-scale survey of 3000 older adults in Hong Kong, using quality of life as a criterion. Results showed that an older adult who had used (ordinary or enhanced) home care services for a longer time turned out to have appreciably more improvement in quality of life. Besides, those who joined an interest group more frequently were higher in quality of life, including the health domain. On the other hand, frequent use of medical and meal-to-home services were signals that reflected problems detrimental to the older users quality of life. Despite this, the quality of clinics or hospitals, as perceived by the older adult, was the most beneficial. As such, caring services that foster older adults interests, cater to their health care needs, and embody quality can have principal contribution to their users quality of life.     

The Best Years of Life: A Study of Older Hong Kong Chinese

This study examines elderly respondents’ self-reported best years of life and the reasons to support their choices. A total of 842 Chinese people aged 60 and over participated in this cross-sectional study, giving an overall response rate of 91%. This study used information from an index entitled The Best Years of Life, which was developed in 1975 by the USA’s National Council on the Aging. The conceptual framework was informed by Daniel J. Levinson’s developmental theory. A little more than 50 percent of the respondents said the best years of life had been in pre-adulthood and early adulthood (ages 10–49), while about 23.5 percent the best years had been in late adulthood (age 60-plus). The patterns of the respondents’ self-reported best years of life showed considerable diversity, and no single pattern can be considered typical. The respondents’ unique personal experience may account for this.     

A Survey of Asset Poverty Among Older Adults of Hong Kong

This study proposes a framework that quantifies and integrates both the tangible and intangible aspects of HC to comprehensively measure the overall level of human capital index (HCI) in small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). Data were collected from 100 SME experts through the use of questionnaires in two stages. The data collected were first, used for selection purpose, and second, for the prioritization of relevant dimensions and sub-dimensions of HC. The analytic hierarchy process was adopted to prioritize and assign dimension and sub-dimension weights to HC to derive the HCI. The results indicate that not all dimensions and sub-dimensions of HC are important for the HCI. Namely, the HCI can be best represented by 9 dimensions and 35 sub-dimensions of HC. The core dimensions are experience, skills, education, abilities and training. Indeed, within experience, the main sub-dimensions are work-related experience and organizational tenure. The results suggest the importance of experience relative to skills and education. The proposed framework can also be applied to derive industry specific HCI.     

Filtered Life Satisfaction and Its Socioeconomic Determinants in Hong Kong

Filtering the measure of life satisfaction through the bias of social desirability and response styles would furnish an adequate analysis of socioeconomic impacts on the filtered life satisfaction. The filtering is necessary because social desirability and the response styles of acquiescence, extremity, and centrality are likely to contaminate the measure of life satisfaction. Based on survey data from 1,993 Hong Kong Chinese adults, the study applied the filtering on the Personal Wellbeing Index to obtain filtered life satisfaction. Results indicated the bias of social desirability and response styles to justify the filtering. They further manifested that socioeconomic impacts on filtered life satisfaction were somewhat different from those on unfiltered life satisfaction. Some of the impacts on unfiltered life satisfaction were attributable to the contamination of life satisfaction by social desirability. Eventually, family income per capita appeared to contribute to filtered life satisfaction; and education and receiving public benefits tended to diminish the satisfaction. The results imply that while the availability of resources explains some of the findings, it does not provide the only or dominant explanation.     

Ways by which Comparable Income Affects Life Satisfaction in Hong Kong

Proponents of social equality attribute low life satisfaction to income inequality in society, an inequality which occurs when most people have relatively low income and only a few have high income. In contrast, range-frequency theory and other social comparison theories predict that when most people have low income, they are satisfied because of the absence of relative deprivation among themselves. This prediction essentially suggests that that the size of the group of individuals with comparable income (i.e., income parity) sustains their life satisfaction. This theoretical prediction, however, does not consider their desire to be distinctive. By incorporating the notion of optimal distinctiveness, the size of income parity may have a quadratic effect on the individual’s life satisfaction. This is a hypothesis that receives support from the present study in Hong Kong, China. The study finds a saddle point of income parity size associated with the lowest life satisfaction, other things being equal. Furthermore, middle-income individuals have income parity size equal to or above this saddle point. They would have higher life satisfaction with increased income parity size, which therefore leads to a more enlarged income inequality. Others, however, may have higher life satisfaction with reduced income parity size. Hence, reducing income inequality would have mixed effects on people with different levels of income.

Life Satisfaction and Happiness Among Older Europeans: The Role of Active Ageing

Social Indicators Research - The older population is growing globally, and more so in some European countries. Aimed at enhancing the quality of life of older people, active ageing has been on the...     

Loneliness and Life Satisfaction in Turkish Early Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Self Esteem and Social Support

This study aimed to measure whether self-esteem and social support are mediators in the relationship between loneliness and life satisfaction. The study includes early teenagers from the 6th, 7th and 8th grades aged between 11 and 15 (M = 13.31, SD = 1.09). The study group consisted of 431 secondary school students from large and medium sized cities in Turkey, of which 196 (44.5 %) were girls and 235 (54.5 %) were boys. The study examined students’ responses to life satisfaction, loneliness, self-esteem and social support scales. Data were separated into parcels of instruments within the framework of structural equation modeling. It was determined that both self-esteem and social support were partial mediators between loneliness and life satisfaction. These results are discussed within the scope of the literature.     

Quality of Life in Hong Kong: the Cuhk Hong Kong Quality of Life Index

The CUHK Hong Kong Quality of Life Index, which aims to assess and monitor the quality of life in Hong Kong, is a composite index incorporating both objective and subjective measures. This index, developed by the Faculty of Social Science of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, employs data collected in representative sample surveys and official statistics. A wide range of life domains is covered and the year 2002 is taken as the base year of the study. Index scores demonstrate that in general the quality of life in Hong Kong has improved slightly in 2003; scores of the composite index and the three sub-indices on sectorial performance are somewhat higher than those of the previous year. It is noteworthy that Hong Kong has made noticeable progress and performs as well as many economically advanced societies in certain life domains; yet, the well-being of the people relies on further improvement in others.     

Quality of Life in Hong Kong: the Cuhk Hong Kong Quality of Life Index

The CUHK Hong Kong Quality of Life Index, which aims to assess and monitor the quality of life in Hong Kong, is a composite index incorporating both objective and subjective measures. This index, developed by the Faculty of Social Science of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, employs data collected in representative sample surveys and official statistics. A wide range of life domains is covered and the year 2002 is taken as the base year of the study. Index scores demonstrate that in general the quality of life in Hong Kong has improved slightly in 2003; scores of the composite index and the three sub-indices on sectorial performance are somewhat higher than those of the previous year. It is noteworthy that Hong Kong has made noticeable progress and performs as well as many economically advanced societies in certain life domains; yet, the well-being of the people relies on further improvement in others.     

不同流入地青年流动人口的社会支持与生活满意度

了解不同流入地的青年流动人口社会支持与生活满意度的相关性,为建立稳固的社会支持系统和提升青年流动人口的生活满意度水平提供理论基础.文章根据2015年3～5月对北京、上海和深圳年龄介于18～35岁青年流动人口的调查,对符合条件的2998名研究对象进行了分析.结果表明,不同流入地的青年流动人口生活满意度水平存在差异(P＜0.001),北京地区的青年流动人口生活满意度最高,深圳最低;不同流入地青年流动人口的社会支持对其生活满意度均有正向影响(P＜0.001);不同流动类型、教育程度、经济融入状况、健康状况的青年流动人口,其生活满意度水平存在差异(P＜0.05).政府部门应协同合作,结合属地情况,提供有效的社会支持,提高其生活满意度水平.     

Gender as a Moderator of the Relation Among Social Support Functions and Life Satisfaction in Older Malaysians

The aim of this study was to examine the moderating role of gender on relations among social support functions and life satisfaction in older Malaysians. The study sample was 1,800 older residents in a community; all were at least 60 years old. This study was a cross-sectional and corelational survey, and the data were collected by multistage stratified sampling. This study revealed that fewer social support functions, and therefore less life satisfaction, were available for females than for males. The results of moderated regression analyses demonstrated that gender interacted only on the relationship between positive social interaction support and tangible support with life satisfaction. Specifically, at a high tangible support level, females had lower life satisfaction when compared to a low tangible support level. There may be a need for new programs and services to provide other aspects of social support to older female adults to improve and maintain life satisfaction in later life.     

Assets and Life Satisfaction Patterns Among Korean Older Adults: Latent Class Analysis

This study aims to examine the association of assets with life satisfaction patterns among Korean older adults aged 50 and above. This study used the first two panel data sets (2005 and 2007) from the Korean Retirement and Income Study, which collected information from a nationally representative sample. Key independent variables include financial assets, real assets, and debts. This study classifies overall patterns of life satisfaction using seven multi-dimensional items via Latent Class Analysis. Multinomial regression models were used to determine factors related to estimated life satisfaction patterns after the data were adjusted by weighting and multiple imputation. This study found three classes of life satisfaction at both waves: low, moderate, and high. During the 2-year study period, significant portions of older adults moved upward (23%) and downward (22%) in their life satisfaction patterns. Consistent with the asset effect theory, this study found that assets and debts are significantly associated with life satisfaction patterns and longitudinal changes in these patterns. The study findings suggest that older adults’ life satisfaction can be maintained or promoted through economic security. Financial planning programs combined with asset accumulation may help older adults to achieve economic security and associated life satisfaction.     

The Quality of Life in Hong Kong

The AsiaBarometer of 1,000 respondents shows that Hong Kong people have a great desire for materialistic attainment, and such an emphasis on materialism bodes ill for their quality of life. Negative assessments of the public life sphere, which encompasses the natural environment, the social welfare system, and the democratic system, also detract from the experiences of happiness, enjoyment, and accomplishment in Hong Kong. Surprisingly, access to digital communication devices helps Hong Kong people to experience a greater quality of life.

Life Satisfaction of Middle-Aged and Older Chinese: The Role of Health and Health Insurance

The Chinese government has launched a series of health reforms to establish universal health insurance coverage, particularly for vulnerable groups, including middle-aged and older adults. However, the current public health insurance system is highly fragmented, consisting of different programs with different levels of premiums and benefits. We analyse whether the universal health insurance system increases the life satisfaction of middle-aged and older Chinese people and to what extent the type of health insurance affects the life satisfaction of this group. Our study is based on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Chinese aged 45 and above, in 2011, 2013, and 2015. We find that the life satisfaction of middle-aged and older adults does not depend on having any health insurance coverage but varies with the type of health insurance coverage, controlling for potential confounding variables such as health status, occupation, hukou status, and other demographic variables. Individuals covered by the most generous program, the Government Medical Insurance, reported a higher life satisfaction. In comparison, individuals covered by the Urban Employee Medical Insurance, the Urban Resident Medical Insurance, and the New Rural Cooperative Scheme reported a lower life satisfaction by 0.155, 0.106, and 0.112 standard deviations, respectively. Our results suggest that establishing a more equitable health insurance system should be the next step in health reforms in China.

     

Asset Impacts on Life Satisfaction in an Asset-Rich Country: Focusing on Older Adults in Singapore

Using a representative sample, this study examined the extent to which assets matter for life satisfaction among older adults in Singapore. Singapore is a particularly useful context to explore the relationship between life satisfaction and assets because almost all Singaporeans own their own house, regardless of income level. First, this study used a latent profile analysis to assess patterns of life satisfaction. Then, asset impacts on this pattern of life satisfaction were examined, while controlling for contextual and health factors. The study found that financial assets matter for life satisfaction of older adults in Singapore. In particular, older adults in both the moderate life satisfaction class (LSC) and the High LSC were likely to have higher financial assets. Comparatively, other economic indicators such as real assets, total debts, and monthly household income were not significantly related to life satisfaction of older adults in the Moderate and High LSC compared to the Low LSC. However, real assets and monthly household income were significant predictors distinguishing the Moderate LSC and the High LSC. Throughout the models, total debts were not considered as a significant predictor of life satisfaction differences. This paper concludes by providing several policy and practice implications.     

Life Satisfaction in Junior Secondary School Students in Hong Kong: A 3-Year Longitudinal Study

The present longitudinal study examined life satisfaction and the related socio-demographic, family, and positive youth development correlates in junior secondary school students in Hong Kong. Results showed that adolescents perceived life satisfaction decreased in their junior secondary school years. Several socio-demographic correlates of life satisfaction were identified from the results of mixed effects ANOVAs and multiple regression analyses: girls showed higher life satisfaction than did boys; adolescents in non-intact families had lower life satisfaction than did adolescents in intact families; adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage showed relatively lower life satisfaction. Results also showed that both family functioning and positive youth development had generally positive predictive relationships with adolescent life satisfaction over time.     

Gender Differences in Happiness and Life Satisfaction Among Adolescents in Hong Kong: Relationships and Self-Concept

This study uses survey data from adolescents (N = 1,428) in Hong Kong to test the association of gender with happiness and life satisfaction through relationship style and self-concept. While self-esteem and purpose in life are associated with higher happiness and life satisfaction, having more close friends is related to higher happiness, but not necessarily life satisfaction. On the other hand, boys with higher academic achievement are happier, but not more satisfied; the opposite holds true for girls. Our results provide a much-needed investigation of the differential effect of gender on the subjective well-being of adolescents. Contributing to the theoretical debate about the concepts of subjective well-being, we argue that happiness and life satisfaction are empirically and conceptually distinct. Life satisfaction might be characterized by more profound enjoyment and achievement in life than happiness.     

丧偶对中国老年人健康的影响:社会连结的调节作用北大核心CSSCI

中国作为人口老龄化发展速度最快的国家之一,正在迎来规模日益庞大的晚年丧偶群体。预计2050年我国60岁及以上的丧偶人口规模将达到1.18亿左右。近年来老年丧偶者的生活质量受到政府和学界的广泛关注。本文利用六期“中国老年人健康影响因素跟踪调查(CLHLS)”数据分析丧偶对我国老年人多种健康指标的影响以及社会连结在其中发挥的调节作用。研究发现丧偶会影响老年人的健康后果和健康行为。在健康后果方面,丧偶对老年人认知功能的影响具有显著的性别差异。丧偶降低了老年男性的认知功能,但在一定时期内提高了老年女性的认知功能。同时,丧偶会对老年人的心理健康产生负面影响。在健康行为方面,丧偶提高了老年女性参与体育锻炼的可能性和老年男性抽烟的可能性。此外,丧偶效应因丧偶前社会连结的不同而存在差异。婚姻质量较低的老年男性在丧偶之后IADL能力反而提高;经常打牌/麻将有助于抑制丧偶对老年男性和女性IADL能力的不利影响,同时也可以抑制丧偶对老年女性慢性病数量的增加作用;子女支持有助于抑制丧偶对老年男性心理健康的负面影响。     

The Influence of Health Promoting Practices on the Quality of Life of Community Adults in Hong Kong

The importance of a healthy lifestyle is receiving increasing attention due to its impact on health and well-being. However, very few studies have been done on health promoting practices of the general public in Hong Kong. The present study aimed to identify the patterns of health promoting practices of the general public in Hong Kong, to compare health promoting practices across gender and education levels, and to examine the relationship between health promoting practices and quality of life. A total of 941 community adults were recruited using a randomized household survey design. Results revealed that a large proportion of participants reported practicing various types of health promoting behavior related to healthy food choice, engaging in stress management strategies, and refraining from health compromising behavior such as smoking and drinking excessively. Female participants were more likely to choose healthy food, refrain from smoking and drinking alcohol excessively, and take vitamin supplements, whereas male participants were more likely to exercise regularly. Both men and women with higher levels of education were more likely to report not smoking, not drinking alcohol excessively, and participating in social activities. Women with higher levels of education were also more likely to engage in relaxing activities but less likely to report exercising regularly and sleeping sufficiently. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that stress management and social relations significantly predicted better quality of life for both male and female participants, and types of preventive health behavior were significant predictors of quality of life for female participants only. Results highlighted the importance of advocating health promoting practices among the general public in Hong Kong. Implications for future practice were discussed.