Centre for Research on Ageing and ESRC Centre for Population Change, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Age Ageing. 2018 Mar 1;47(2):275-281. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afx137.
the number of childless older people is increasing in China, but relatively little is known about the role of childlessness in health outcomes. This study investigates the relationship between childlessness and three health outcomes: difficulty with Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), self-rated health and depression.
this study includes 13,171 individuals aged 50 and above from national survey data of the second wave of the China Family Panel Study (2012). Binary/multinomial logistic and ordinary least squares regression models are presented.
childless individuals whose children have all died exhibit worse health outcomes than individuals with children, but this effect is influenced by demographic characteristics, socio-economic status and social security. On the other hand, individuals who are childless due to other reasons (involuntary or voluntary) are less likely to report difficulty with IADLs and to report depression than older people with all children alive after controlling for demographic and socio-economic and social security factors.
the death of a child has an adverse effect on people's health for both childless people whose children have all died and those who have lost a child but have other children alive. These two groups are in the most vulnerable position, which could also suggest that their children have died because they grew up in a vulnerable family. The government needs to improve the social security for these two groups and provide social services (particularly mental health services) to older people who have lost a child; these could contribute to alleviating some of the adverse effects of the death of a child.
中国的无子女老年人数量正在增加，但人们对无子女状况在健康结果中的作用知之甚少。本研究调查了无子女状况与三种健康结果之间的关系：日常生活活动（IADLs）的困难程度、自评健康和抑郁。
本研究包括来自中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS）第二轮（2012 年）的全国调查数据中的 13171 名年龄在 50 岁及以上的个体。呈现了二元/多项逻辑回归模型和普通最小二乘回归模型。
子女全部死亡的无子女个体的健康结果比有子女的个体更差，但这种影响受到人口特征、社会经济地位和社会保障的影响。另一方面，由于其他原因（非自愿或自愿）而无子女的个体，在控制人口和社会经济及社会保障因素后，不太可能报告 IADLs 困难和抑郁。
子女死亡对所有子女死亡的无子女者和失去子女但仍有其他子女存活的无子女者的健康都有不利影响。这两组人处于最脆弱的地位，这也可能表明他们的孩子是在一个脆弱的家庭中长大的。政府需要改善这两组人的社会保障，为失去孩子的老年人提供社会服务（特别是心理健康服务）；这些可能有助于减轻子女死亡的一些不利影响。
