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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Gender differences in physical health and psychosocial well-being among four age groups of elderly people in Israel | | Author(s) | Sara Carmel, Judith H Bernstein |
| Journal title | International Journal of Aging and Human Development, vol 56, no 2, 2003 |
| Pages | pp 113-132 |
| Keywords | Older men ; Older women ; Health [elderly] ; Well being ; Over 70s ; Social surveys ; Israel. |
| Annotation | In the light of inconsistent findings on patterns of gender differences in physical and psychosocial well-being in old age, the authors conducted structured interviews with a random sample of 987 Israeli older people aged 70+ in 1994. The sample was analysed in four age groups: 70-74, 75-79, 80-84, and 85+. Findings indicate that in nearly every gender comparison by age, women score lower than men on indicators of physical and psychosocial well-being, and in both genders increasing limitations or activities of daily living (ADLs), were noticed. However, on all measures of physical health, except for ADL, the male advantage declines in the older age groups. This pattern is even stronger for psychosocial indicators of well-being, where no significant gender differences are found between the oldest groups. The trend of convergence among men and women thus occurs mainly in the 85+ age group. Results of multivariate analysis indicate that sense of control in one's life is an important explanatory variable of satisfaction with life for men but not for women. The significant decline in the sense of control of men, age 85+, is one of the main reasons for the more significant decline found in men's psychosocial well-being compared to women. Thus, decline in health status and other losses experienced with ageing, affect men's sense of control over life more significantly, and therefore has a more deleterious effect on men's well-being than that of women. This conclusion, however, has to be supported by longitudinal studies. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-031001210 A |
| Classmark | BC: BD: CC: D:F:5HH: BBK: 3F: 7H6 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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