Centre for Policy on Ageing



Health, widowhood and family support in the North and South Pacific — a comparative study
Author(s)	James W McNally
Journal title	Journal of Women & Aging, vol 15, no 2/3, 2003
Pages	pp 29-48
Source	http://www.tandfonline.com
Keywords	Health [elderly] ; Widows ; Family care ; Living with family ; Comparison ; Cross national surveys ; Philippines ; Polynesia.
Annotation	This paper compares the impacts of health and widowhood on the level of support received by older women living in small island communities within the Philippines and Fiji. Using a theoretical perspective of ongoing reciprocal exchange as opposed to altruistic support within household economies, this paper reviews the impacts of disability and economic contributions on the level of support an older woman receives. It is hypothesised that as a widow's health declines, her access to care will also diminish due to an inability to contribute to the household economies of the extended family. This paper extends existing work on health and family support of widowed females in the developing world, by performing a cross-national comparative analysis as well as by explicitly testing the assumptions of altruism that are a central assumption of most models of long-term care in underdeveloped nations. (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-040113209 A
Classmark	CC: SP: P6:SJ: KA:SJ: 48: 3K: 7XK: 7YP
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.