Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi.
Gerontologist. 2018 Jan 18;58(1):111-120. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnx091.
This article evaluates the influence of local district conditions on subjective quality of life of older South African adults. Policymakers increasingly recognize that "successful" aging policies must not only address physical health needs but also factors that influence subjective well-being.
To investigate the influence of area-level distribution of "public goods" on well-being in a low- and middle-income setting, nationally representative WHO-Study of Global AGEing and Adult Health (WHO-SAGE) survey data is combined with district-level data that captures built resources and health system distribution. Multilevel regression modeling is utilized to explore how community context, including built resources and health infrastructure quality, influence older persons' quality of life and how chronic health conditions may moderate this relationship while controlling for important individual characteristics.
While controlling for individual and district level factors, it is found community level provision of built resources of basic services (i.e., water, sanitation, electricity, housing) has a modest but significant impact on older persons' subjective well-being. Further, this effect on older persons' perceptions of quality of life is moderated by individual chronic health status; individuals with a chronic health condition do not receive an equivalent benefit from district built condition like those without an illness do.
This work adds to the literature concerning the effect of environments in low- and middle-income countries on older adults' subjective well-being. It also adds to the growing literature on the complex relationship between subjective well-being and health in diverse contexts.
本文评估了当地地区条件对南非老年人主观生活质量的影响。政策制定者越来越认识到，“成功”的老龄化政策不仅必须解决身体健康需求，还必须解决影响主观幸福感的因素。
为了研究在低中等收入环境中，“公共物品”的区域分布对幸福感的影响，我们将具有代表性的世界卫生组织全球老龄化和成人健康研究（WHO-SAGE）调查数据与捕捉建筑资源和卫生系统分布的地区级数据相结合。利用多层次回归模型来探索社区环境（包括建筑资源和卫生基础设施质量）如何影响老年人的生活质量，以及慢性健康状况如何在控制重要个体特征的情况下调节这种关系。
在控制个体和地区因素的情况下，发现社区层面基本服务（即水、卫生、电、住房）的建筑资源供应对老年人的主观幸福感有一定但显著的影响。此外，这种对老年人生活质量感知的影响受到个体慢性健康状况的调节；患有慢性疾病的个体不会像没有疾病的个体那样从地区建筑条件中获得同等的益处。
这项工作增加了关于环境对低中等收入国家老年人主观幸福感影响的文献。它还增加了关于在不同背景下主观幸福感与健康之间复杂关系的不断增长的文献。
