Department of Social security Empirical Research, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Tokyo, Japan.
PLoS One. 2021 Aug 18;16(8):e0254779. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254779. eCollection 2021.
The unprecedented population aging brings profound influences to the social values of longevity. The individual attitudes toward the expended life time deserves scrutiny, as it reflects the impacts of social networks and social welfare on people's life and wellbeing. This study aims to examine whether and how gender disparity is affecting the individual anticipation to longevity among Japanese citizen. We used the dataset of National Survey on Social Security and Peoples Life implemented in 2017 to calculate the odds ratios (OR) of the individual anticipation to longevity. Besides gender, other demographic characteristics, physical and mental health, the experience of nursing care for the elderly, financial conditions and social networks are examined by performing the multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis. The results indicate the robust effects of gender disparity on the individual aspiration for longevity. The proportion of those who inclined the positive statement on longevity was estimated to be 69.7% (95% CI: 68.6% - 70.9%) in the whole population, and 70.9% (95% CI: 69.4% - 72.5%) and 68.7% (95% CI: 67.1% - 70.2%) in male and female, respectively. Besides gender, independent factors significantly affecting the individual valuation of longevity include age, annual household income, the experience of nursing care, household saving, having a conversation with others and the availability of reliable partner(s) for relevant supports; while the common factors affecting the outcome variable were self-perceived health status and mental distress measured by K6. The interaction of gender and these significant factors were determined as well. In conclusion, with relevant representativeness and quality of data source, this analysis adds knowledge on gender disparity in the individual anticipation on longevity. The findings are suggestive to reform the social security system in the super aged society.
人口老龄化给长寿的社会价值观带来了深远的影响。个体对延长寿命的态度值得关注，因为它反映了社会网络和社会福利对人们生活和幸福感的影响。本研究旨在探讨性别差异是否以及如何影响日本公民对长寿的个人预期。我们使用了 2017 年实施的社会保障和人民生活状况全国调查数据集来计算个人对长寿的预期的优势比（OR）。除了性别之外，其他人口统计学特征、身心健康、照顾老年人的经验、财务状况和社会网络也通过进行多层次混合效应逻辑回归分析进行了检查。结果表明，性别差异对个人对长寿的期望有显著影响。在整个人群中，倾向于对长寿持肯定态度的比例估计为 69.7%（95%CI：68.6%-70.9%），男性为 70.9%（95%CI：69.4%-72.5%），女性为 68.7%（95%CI：67.1%-70.2%）。除了性别之外，独立因素显著影响个人对长寿的评估，包括年龄、家庭年收入、照顾老年人的经验、家庭储蓄、与他人交谈以及获得可靠伴侣的相关支持的可用性；而影响因变量的共同因素是自我感知的健康状况和 K6 测量的精神困扰。还确定了性别和这些显著因素之间的相互作用。总之，本分析具有相关的代表性和数据来源质量，增加了关于个人对长寿的预期中的性别差异的知识。研究结果有助于改革超老龄化社会的社会保障制度。
