Original StudyHealth Characteristics of Older People Who Rotationally Live With Families: A Nationwide Survey
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Data Source and Sample
Data of this study were retrieved from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (TLSA), which was a nationwide population-based survey by the Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health. The major aim of the TLSA was to provide information on longitudinal trends of social, economic, and health status of the elderly in Taiwan and the associative factors. The study participants were randomly selected from people aged 60 years or older among 331 cities and townships in Taiwan in 1989. Overall,
Results
Table 1 summarizes the demographic characteristics of the study sample. Subjects with rotational living arrangement were significantly older than the others (81.1 ± 7.3 years for rotational living arrangement vs 75.9 ± 7.2 years for those who live with families, and 76.9 ± 6.6 years for those who lived alone, P < .001 by 1-way analysis of variance). Compared with men, those with a rotational living arrangement were more likely to be women (68.8%) than those who lived with families (48.3%) or
Discussion
Living with families, mostly adult children, is considered an ideal living arrangement in traditional Chinese culture and is a key presentation of filial piety. Adult children may feel somewhat blameworthy if their parents live alone without being provided direct care by them. However, because of the westernization of societies and globalization of job opportunities, living with elderly parents has become a less feasible living arrangement in modern societies. Therefore, an alternative solution
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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.