IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v14y2017i10p1191-d114266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Living Alone on Depressive Symptoms in Older Korean Widows

Author

Listed:
  • Gyeong-Suk Jeon

    (Department of Nursing Science and Research Institute of Women, Mokpo National University, 1666 Yeongsan-ro, Cheonggye-myeon, Muan-gun, Jeonam 534-729, Korea)

  • Kyungwon Choi

    (Department of Nursing, Korea National University of Transportation, 61 Daehak-ro, Jeungpyeong-gun Chungbuk 27909, Korea)

  • Sung-Il Cho

    (Department of Public Health Science, Graduate school of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea)

Abstract

We examined the relationship between living alone and the prevalence of depressive symptoms in older Korean widows and assessed the individual contributions of health, social ties, and socioeconomic factors to the development of depressive symptoms. The study was a secondary analysis using data from widows, 65 years of age and older, who participated in the Living Profiles of Older People Survey (LPOPS). A logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the contributions of health, social ties, and socioeconomic factors to the development of depressive symptoms. Working status and equivalent household income were significantly associated with depressive symptoms in both those living with others and those living alone. Adjustment for health status and social ties did not change the impact of living alone on the prevalence of depressive symptoms. However, adjustment for equivalent household income eliminated the negative association between living alone and depressive symptoms. Our findings indicate that economic resources are more important than health and social ties for alleviating the negative impact of living alone on the development of depressive symptoms in older widows.

Suggested Citation

  • Gyeong-Suk Jeon & Kyungwon Choi & Sung-Il Cho, 2017. "Impact of Living Alone on Depressive Symptoms in Older Korean Widows," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-11, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:10:p:1191-:d:114266
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/10/1191/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/10/1191/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gyeong-Suk Jeon & Soong-Nang Jang & Seon-Ja Rhee & Ichiro Kawachi & Sung-Il Cho, 2007. "Gender Differences in Correlates of Mental Health Among Elderly Koreans," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(5), pages 323-329.
    2. Denton, Margaret & Prus, Steven & Walters, Vivienne, 2004. "Gender differences in health: a Canadian study of the psychosocial, structural and behavioural determinants of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(12), pages 2585-2600, June.
    3. Gyeong-Suk Jeon & Soong-Nang Jang & Dong-Sik Kim & Sung-Il Cho, 2013. "Widowhood and Depressive Symptoms Among Korean Elders: The Role of Social Ties," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 68(6), pages 963-973.
    4. David Russell & John Taylor, 2009. "Living Alone and Depressive Symptoms: The Influence of Gender, Physical Disability, and Social Support Among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 64(1), pages 95-104.
    5. Hyunjoon Park & Jaesung Choi, 2015. "Long-term trends in living alone among Korean adults: Age, gender, and educational differences," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(43), pages 1177-1208.
    6. Jang, Soong-Nang & Kawachi, Ichiro & Chang, Jiyeun & Boo, Kachung & Shin, Hyun-Gu & Lee, Hyejung & Cho, Sung-il, 2009. "Marital status, gender, and depression: Analysis of the baseline survey of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 1608-1615, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yu-Han Hsiao & Meng-Chih Lee & Chih-Jung Yeh & Chi-Jung Tai & Shiuan-Shinn Lee, 2021. "Social Participation and Survival in Widowed Persons: Results of the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Chiyoung Lee & Jee-Seon Yi, 2021. "Socioeconomic Classes among Oldest-Old Women in South Korea: A Latent Class Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Yoh Murayama & Sachiko Yamazaki & Masami Hasebe & Tomoya Takahashi & Jun Yamaguchi & Erika Kobayashi, 2022. "Psychological Factors That Suppress Help-Seeking among Middle-Aged and Older Adults Living Alone," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-13, August.
    4. Mingwang Fang & Jinfeng Chen & Ling Guo & Xiao Ma, 2019. "Gender Differences in Geriatric Depressive Symptoms in Rural China: The Role of Physical Housing Environments and Living Arrangements," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-13, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan & John Knodel & Wiraporn Pothisiri, 2015. "What does living alone really mean for older persons? A comparative study of Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(48), pages 1329-1360.
    2. Dirk Bethmann & Robert Rudolf, 2018. "Happily ever after? Intrahousehold bargaining and the distribution of utility within marriage," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 347-376, June.
    3. Christian Kroll, 2011. "Different Things Make Different People Happy: Examining Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being by Gender and Parental Status," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 157-177, October.
    4. Baek, Jiwon & Kim, Go-Un & Song, Kijun & Kim, Heejung, 2023. "Decreasing patterns of depression in living alone across middle-aged and older men and women using a longitudinal mixed-effects model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    5. Maruyama, Shiko, 2015. "The effect of coresidence on parental health in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-22.
    6. Clémence Kieny & Gabriela Flores & Jürgen Maurer, 2021. "Assessing and decomposing gender differences in evaluative and emotional well-being among older adults in the developing world," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 189-221, March.
    7. Gyeong-Suk Jeon & Sung-Il Cho & Kyungwon Choi & Kwang-Sim Jang, 2019. "Gender Differences in the Prevalence and Correlates of Elder Abuse in a Community-Dwelling Older Population in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, January.
    8. Kyungwon Choi & Gyeong-Suk Jeon & Kwang-Sim Jang, 2020. "Gender Differences in the Impact of Intergenerational Support on Depressive Symptoms among Older Adults in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-13, June.
    9. Fritzell, Sara & Ringbäck Weitoft, Gunilla & Fritzell, Johan & Burström, Bo, 2007. "From macro to micro: The health of Swedish lone mothers during changing economic and social circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(12), pages 2474-2488, December.
    10. Lee, Chioun & Ryff, Carol D., 2016. "Early parenthood as a link between childhood disadvantage and adult heart problems: A gender-based approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 58-66.
    11. Kirsi Talala & Taina Huurre & Hillevi Aro & Tuija Martelin & Ritva Prättälä, 2008. "Socio-demographic Differences in Self-reported Psychological Distress Among 25- to 64-Year-Old Finns," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 323-335, April.
    12. Kate Birnie & Rachel Cooper & Richard M Martin & Diana Kuh & Avan Aihie Sayer & Beatriz E Alvarado & Antony Bayer & Kaare Christensen & Sung-il Cho & Cyrus Cooper & Janie Corley & Leone Craig & Ian J , 2011. "Childhood Socioeconomic Position and Objectively Measured Physical Capability Levels in Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, January.
    13. Orfila, Francesc & Ferrer, Montserrat & Lamarca, Rosa & Tebe, Cristian & Domingo-Salvany, Antonia & Alonso, Jordi, 2006. "Gender differences in health-related quality of life among the elderly: The role of objective functional capacity and chronic conditions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(9), pages 2367-2380, November.
    14. Jun Zhang & Yuang He & Jing Zhang, 2022. "Energy Poverty and Depression in Rural China: Evidence from the Quantile Regression Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-21, January.
    15. Fabio Ferretti & Andrea Pozza & Maurilio Pallassini & Lorenzo Righi & Fulvia Marini & Sabrina Adami & Anna Coluccia, 2019. "Gender invariance of dignity in non-terminal elderly patients with chronic diseases: a multicentric study," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 1645-1656, May.
    16. Soad Albahar & Jing Li & Mustafa Al-Zoughool & Ali Al-Hemoud & Janvier Gasana & Hassan Aldashti & Barrak Alahmad, 2022. "Air Pollution and Respiratory Hospital Admissions in Kuwait: The Epidemiological Applicability of Predicted PM 2.5 in Arid Regions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-10, May.
    17. Macleod, John & Davey Smith, George & Metcalfe, Chris & Hart, Carole, 2005. "Is subjective social status a more important determinant of health than objective social status? Evidence from a prospective observational study of Scottish men," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 1916-1929, November.
    18. Robert Stefko & Beata Gavurova & Viera Ivankova & Martin Rigelsky, 2020. "Gender Inequalities in Health and Their Effect on the Economic Prosperity Represented by the GDP of Selected Developed Countries—Empirical Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-26, May.
    19. Silver, Michelle Pannor & Dass, Adrian Rohit & Laporte, Audrey, 2020. "The effect of post-retirement employment on health," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    20. Kung, Claryn S.J., 2020. "Health in widowhood: The roles of social capital and economic resources," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:10:p:1191-:d:114266. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.