Glaser Karen, Tomassini Cecilia, Racioppi Filomena, Stuchbury Rachel
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building, Waterloo Bridge Wing, Waterloo Road, London, SE1 9NH UK.
Department of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Molise, 2° Edificio Polifunzionale Via De Sanctis, 86100 Campobasso, Italy.
Eur J Ageing. 2006 Oct 31;3(4):207-216. doi: 10.1007/s10433-006-0036-y. eCollection 2006 Dec.
Marital disruption (i.e. due to death, divorce or separation) at older ages is an important issue as it removes the usual primary source of help and support: a husband or wife. To date, few studies have investigated the support implications (both , here defined as perceived support and social embeddedness and , defined as use of domiciliary care services) of marital disruptions in later life. This issue needs addressing as widow(er)hood and divorce are increasingly occurring at older ages. Employing data from the longitudinal British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) (1991-2003) we investigated the association between marital disruption and first loss of (a) perceived support and (b) at least weekly contact with at least one non-relative friend, among those aged 50 and over. We also examined first use of domiciliary care services (i.e. health visitor or district nurse, home help or meals-on-wheels) among those aged 70 and over. Our findings show that marital separation increased the odds of losing perceived support whereas widow(er)hood showed no significant association among people aged 50 and over. Separation and widow(er)hood increased the odds of losing weekly contact with non-relative friends (although the odds were greater for separation) in this age group. Finally, widow(er)hood increased the odds of using domiciliary care services among respondents aged 70 and over.
老年时期的婚姻破裂（即由于死亡、离婚或分居）是一个重要问题，因为它移除了通常的主要帮助和支持来源：丈夫或妻子。迄今为止，很少有研究调查晚年婚姻破裂对支持的影响（这里将支持定义为感知到的支持和社会融入，以及将支持定义为使用居家护理服务）。由于丧偶和离婚在老年人中越来越普遍，这个问题需要得到解决。利用英国住户调查小组（BHPS）（1991 - 2003年）的纵向数据，我们调查了50岁及以上人群中婚姻破裂与（a）感知到的支持首次丧失以及（b）与至少一位非亲属朋友至少每周联系一次之间的关联。我们还研究了70岁及以上人群首次使用居家护理服务（即健康访视员或地区护士、家政服务或送餐上门服务）的情况。我们的研究结果表明，婚姻分居增加了失去感知到的支持的几率，而在50岁及以上人群中，丧偶与这种情况没有显著关联。在这个年龄组中，分居和丧偶增加了失去与非亲属朋友每周联系的几率（尽管分居的几率更大）。最后，丧偶增加了70岁及以上受访者使用居家护理服务的几率。
