School of Medicine, 1371Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
145753Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
J Appl Gerontol. 2023 Mar;42(3):419-426. doi: 10.1177/07334648221135588. Epub 2022 Oct 31.
This study evaluates help sources for personal and health tasks of adults living in the community without a spouse or nearby children. Using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and over, we conducted a population-based study of 2998 community-dwelling adults who received assistance with personal, household, or medical tasks in the past month. Using ANOVA, we compared adults aging solo to those with spouses at home and/or children in the same state. Adults aging solo were significantly more likely to identify non-child/spouse family, friends, neighbors and paid aides as part of their social networks. Their sources of unpaid help included siblings (33%), friends (32%), and non-family (e.g., neighbors (23%)). Adults aging solo were more likely to use paid caregivers, despite having lower incomes than married peers. Interventions to support adults aging solo should incorporate diverse social/help networks.
本研究评估了无配偶或无子女的社区居住成年人在个人和健康方面的帮助来源。本研究使用了来自全国健康老龄化趋势研究（NHATS）的数据，该研究是一项针对 Medicare 受益人的全国代表性样本，年龄在 65 岁及以上。我们对 2998 名过去一个月接受过个人、家庭或医疗任务帮助的社区居住成年人进行了一项基于人群的研究。使用方差分析，我们将独自衰老的成年人与家中有配偶和/或子女的成年人进行了比较。独自衰老的成年人更有可能将非子女/配偶的家庭成员、朋友、邻居和付费助手视为其社交网络的一部分。他们获得的无偿帮助包括兄弟姐妹（33%）、朋友（32%）和非家庭成员（如邻居（23%））。尽管独自衰老的成年人的收入低于已婚同龄人，但他们更有可能使用付费护理人员。支持独自衰老的成年人的干预措施应该纳入多样化的社交/帮助网络。
