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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Impact of spouse vision impairment on partner health and well-being
— a longitudinal analysis of couples | | Author(s) | William J Strawbridge, Margaret I Wallhagen, Sarah J Shema |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 62B, no 5, September 2007 |
| Pages | pp S315-S322 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Visual impairment ; Spouses ; Married couples ; Health [elderly] ; Well being ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Participants were 418 older people from the Alameda County Study in California. Visual impairment was assessed in 1994 with a 9-point scale assessing difficulty in seeing in everyday situations; outcomes were assessed in 1999. Longitudinal analyses included multivariate statistical models adjusting for paired data and partners' own visual impairment, age, gender. chronic conditions, and financial problems. Results on outcome for partners' own visual impairment are included for comparative purposes. Gender differences were assessed with interaction tests. Spouse visual impairment negatively affected partner depression, physical functioning, well-being, social involvement and marital quality. These effects were not greatly different in magnitude from those associated with partners' own visual impairment. Three of four outcomes with significant gender differences evidenced stronger impacts of husbands' visual impairment on wives' well-being and marital quality than the reverse. Spouses do not live in isolation: characteristics of one affect the other. Both treatment and rehabilitation programmes should includes visually impaired patients' spouses and other family members. Why wives appear more sensitive to their husbands' visual impairment is unclear and warrants further study. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080307204 A |
| Classmark | BR: SN: SM: CC: D:F:5HH: 3J: 7T |
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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