Can Individual Attitudes toward Aging Predict Subsequent Physical Disabilities in Older Taiwanese Individuals? A Four-Year Retrospective Cohort Study

Chien-Yao Sun, Chun-Yin Yeh, Yan Zhao and Ching-Ju Chiu
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Chien-Yao Sun: Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan
Chun-Yin Yeh: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan
Yan Zhao: WHO Collaborating Centre for Community Health Services, School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Ching-Ju Chiu: Institute of Gerontology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 18, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Individual attitudes toward aging have been regarded as a modifiable risk for physical disability. However, longitudinal cohort studies have not been carried out in countries in Asia. In the present study, we aimed to explore the association between individual attitudes toward aging and subsequent physical disabilities using a nationwide representative cohort, the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (TLSA), over a 4-year follow-up period. In 2003, a baseline survey for 10-item attitudes toward aging scale consisting of widely different domains across financial relationships with children, grandparenting, living arrangements, and remarriage was conducted. Later, physical disabilities, including mobility and activities of daily living (ADL) limitations, were evaluated in 2007. A total of 1635 participants aged 57 and over were analyzed. Older age, self-rated poor health, and those suffering from pain were found to be more likely to have higher risk of physical disabilities. The older adults who expressed a willingness to receive financial support from their adult children were reported to have a lower risk of mobility limitations (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 0.67, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.50–0.90), while those who did not want to assist with child care as grandparents had a higher risk of ADL difficulties (aOR: 2.46, 95% CI: 1.31–4.60). Our work shed light on the importance of individual attitudes toward aging in predicting long-term physical disabilities and illuminated the intimate role of grandparents, both financial and participatory, in Chinese families. In the future, culturally adapted attitudes toward aging scale should be developed to identify older Chinese adults at risk of physical disabilities.

Keywords: attitudes toward aging; aging perceptions; physical function; older adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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