Department of Sociology, California State University-San Bernardino.
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2019 Sep 15;74(7):1245-1255. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbx071.
This study examines relationships between municipal age structure and two types of self-rated health: general (SRH) and comparison with similar-aged peers (C-SRH).
Using a national sample of almost 5,000 Japanese older adults over two decades, we employ hierarchical growth curve models to estimate health trajectories. For municipal age structure, we consider both the relative prevalence of elderly adults in the local population and the pace of aging over time.
Living in the oldest municipalities was generally associated with worse health, particularly between the ages of 70 and 80 years. For SRH, the speed of municipal population aging was also independently associated with worse health. For C-SRH, worse health in older areas was partially explained by less favorable economic conditions in those municipalities. Results also suggest that higher levels of employment and social integration among older adults living in the oldest municipalities operate in the opposite direction. That is, these attributes partially "protect" individuals from other factors that contribute to worse health.
Relative differences in municipal age structure and the pace of population aging are largely unexplored and potentially important correlates of older adult health. This line of research is increasingly salient in a world with substantial and growing regional variation in population aging.
本研究考察了城市年龄结构与两种自评健康类型之间的关系：一般自评健康（SRH）和与同年龄段人群比较的自评健康（C-SRH）。
我们使用近 5000 名日本老年人二十多年的全国样本，采用分层增长曲线模型来估计健康轨迹。对于城市年龄结构，我们同时考虑了当地人口中老年人口的相对比例和随时间推移的老龄化速度。
居住在最老年化的城市通常与较差的健康状况相关，特别是在 70 至 80 岁之间。对于 SRH，城市人口老龄化的速度也与较差的健康状况独立相关。对于 C-SRH，较老地区的健康状况较差部分可以归因于这些城市的经济条件较差。结果还表明，在最老年化的城市中，老年居民的就业水平和社会融合程度较高，对健康产生了相反的影响。也就是说，这些因素在一定程度上“保护”了个人免受其他导致健康状况恶化的因素的影响。
城市年龄结构和人口老龄化速度的相对差异在很大程度上尚未得到探索，它们可能是老年人健康的重要相关因素。在人口老龄化存在巨大且不断增长的地区差异的世界中，这一研究领域越来越重要。
