Zhenmei Zhang | Michigan State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Zhenmei Zhang

Innovation in Aging

Objectives The likelihood of providing care to a spouse in middle and older ages has increased as... more Objectives The likelihood of providing care to a spouse in middle and older ages has increased as life expectancy increases, but knowledge about how the caregiver and care recipient influence each other’s mental health is limited. This study examined whether a partner’s physical, cognitive, and mental health in a spousal caregiving dyad are associated with the other partner’s depressive symptoms in China and whether the dyadic effects vary by gender. Methods This study used data from Wave 3 (2015) and Wave 4 (2018) follow-up surveys of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The analytic sample featured 1,245 dyads of care recipients aged 45 or older and their spouse caregivers. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was used to test the dyadic effects among all couples in the analytic sample, couples with wife caregivers and couples with husband caregivers, respectively. Results We found that caregiver’s depressive symptoms at Wave 3 were significantly associa...

Geriatrics, Jun 7, 2018

The objective of this study was to examine how age at first marriage is related to the risk of de... more The objective of this study was to examine how age at first marriage is related to the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and cancer in later life. We analyzed longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 2129 older adults (born in the 1940s or earlier) in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. We found that for men in this cohort, the age at first marriage that was related to the lowest risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancer in later life was the early 30s; men who first married at either younger or older ages had significantly higher odds of experiencing CVD and cancer. Interestingly, for women in this cohort, the age at first marriage was not related to the risk of either CVD or cancer.

Innovation in Aging, 2018

Older adults produce more high-confidence recognition memory errors in episodic memory tasks. We ... more Older adults produce more high-confidence recognition memory errors in episodic memory tasks. We studied how distinctive encoding enhances the retrieval-monitoring accuracy in older adults (OA) and younger adults (YA). Individuals viewed words consisting of four randomly selected exemplars (e.g., SALMON, BASS, PERCH, SHARK) from a taxonomic category (e.g., FISH), one being designated as the to-be-remembered target. Participants experienced one of two orienting tasks at encoding: Shared (generate a shared feature, e.g., GILLS) or Difference (generate a distinctive feature of the target). Recall and recognition were tested after a 7-day delay for YA and a 2-day delay for OA (equating them on memory performance). We collected Feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments before and retrospective confidence judgments (CJs) after a five-alternative forced-choice (5AFC) recognition test. 5AFC lures were either previously presented (old) exemplars or new category exemplars. Recall and recognition memory were better in the Difference condition. Shared processing produced more high-confidence memory errors for both age groups, especially OAs (p < .01). Both age groups were lured by old exemplars after Shared processing, with more errors for older adults. This age difference disappeared with Difference processing, generating better CJ resolution (correlation of CJs with 5AFC accuracy). FOK resolution was very low for both age groups. Results indicate two routes to 5AFC errors: reliance on episodic familiarity over recollection and reliance on semantic activation and interference. Distinctiveness encoding boosts recollection and reduces illusory semantic activation during test, which is especially helpful to older adults in reducing false memories.

Social science & medicine (1982), 2016

The fetal origins hypothesis posits that adverse prenatal exposures, particularly malnutrition, i... more The fetal origins hypothesis posits that adverse prenatal exposures, particularly malnutrition, increase the risk of poor adult health. Studies using famine as a natural experiment to test the fetal origins hypothesis present conflicting findings, partly because of data limitations and modeling flaws. Capitalizing on the biomarker data and prefecture-level geographic information from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this study estimates the effects of prenatal exposure to China's 1959-61 famine on later-life risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Our analysis addresses the problems of measurement error and intrinsic cohort differences that challenge prior studies. We use provincial and prefecture-level geographic variations in famine severity, a proxy for prenatal malnutrition, for model identification. We construct instrumental variables from geocoded newspaper archive data to adjust for measurement error in famine exposure. We find that estimat...

Journal of cross-cultural gerontology, 2014

This paper examines how adult children's expressed filial piety, receipt of help from parents... more This paper examines how adult children's expressed filial piety, receipt of help from parents, socioeconomic resources, and parents' needs are associated with the likelihood of parent-child coresidence in contemporary China. Drawing on the 2002 wave of the Chinese Survey of Family Dynamics and the 2002 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, we used logistic regression to analyze correlates of coresidence with parents of 3,938 married adult children, aged 35 to 65. Results show that the stronger the filial piety expressed by adult children, the higher their likelihood of coresiding with their parents. Married adult children are also more likely to coreside with elderly parents who have provided intensive grandchild care and financial support or with those who need financial, physical, and emotional support. However, adult children who own homes are significantly less likely to live with their parents than are those who do not. These findings suggest that c...

Social Science & Medicine, 2019

Although the association between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and late-life cognition is ... more Although the association between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and late-life cognition is well-established, the mechanisms underlying this association are less clear. One important potential mediator seldom examined is adolescent cognitive ability. To address this gap, we examined 5,880 respondents from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which follows a random sample of high school students who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. Structural equation models were used to examine the direct and indirect effects of childhood SES on cognition in late midlife through adolescent cognitive ability, educational attainment, midlife economic condition, and midlife health. Cognitive function was measured as a latent variable composed of scores from 6 cognitive assessments including immediate and delayed recall, digit ordering, letter and category fluency, and a subset of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale similarities test. We found that childhood SES predicts cognition in late midlife, and this association is largely mediated by adolescent cognitive ability and educational achievement and to a lesser extent by midlife economic condition and health. The findings underscore the long-arm of childhood SES in cognitive function in later life and highlight the complex life-course pathways underlying the association between childhood SES and cognition.

Journal of aging and health, Jan 22, 2015

Studies have reported that rural elders in China have higher levels of depression than their urba... more Studies have reported that rural elders in China have higher levels of depression than their urban peers. We aimed to examine the extent to which four sets of factors (socioeconomic status [SES], health care access, health status, and social support and participation) account for such rural-urban differences. Cross-sectional data from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were analyzed. A representative sample (N = 5,103) of older Chinese (age 60+) was included. Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10). Multilevel linear regression was conducted. Rural elders had more depressive symptoms than urban elders. When SES at the individual, household, and community level was simultaneously controlled, the rural-urban difference lost its statistical significance. Health status, social support, and social participation accounted for some, whereas health care access explained almost none, of the rural-urban ...

Couple relationships in the middle and later years: Their nature, complexity, and role in health and illness., 2016

Ageing and Society, 2019

Substantial research shows that cardiovascular disease is a major cause of disability in the Unit... more Substantial research shows that cardiovascular disease is a major cause of disability in the United States of America (USA) and worldwide. Despite the well-documented significance of intimate partnerships for cardiovascular health and disease management, how relationship quality contributes to the functional health of older adults diagnosed with cardiovascular disease is much less understood than mental health and mortality risk. Informed by the disablement process model and the lifecourse perspective, this study examines the association between relationship quality and functional limitations among partnered older adults aged 50 years and older diagnosed with cardiovascular disease in the USA. Data are from the Health and Retirement Study, 2006–2012 (N = 1,355). Multi-level linear regression analyses show that baseline negative relationship quality is significantly associated with increased functional limitations over the two- and four-year follow-ups. Additionally, the link between...

Population Research and Policy Review, 2017

This study examines the self-reported health of 180,291 married non-Hispanic blacks and whites in... more This study examines the self-reported health of 180,291 married non-Hispanic blacks and whites in interracial versus endogamous marriages. Data are from the National Health Interview Survey pooled over the period 1997–2013. The results from ordinal logistic regressions show that non-Hispanic whites intermarried with non-Hispanic blacks, non-Hispanic whites intermarried with non-Hispanic other races, and non-Hispanic white women with Hispanic husbands report significantly poorer health than their endogamous counterparts. Furthermore, non-Hispanic whites with non-Hispanic black spouses also fare worse than their interracially married peers with Hispanic spouses. In contrast, the self-reported health of married non-Hispanic blacks shows no significant difference between the interracially and the endogamously married. Our findings highlight the theoretical significance of spousal characteristics and couple-level contexts in the household production of health.

Research on Aging, 2012

This study examined the morbidity patterns of foreign-born Hispanics, U.S.-born Hispanics, Blacks... more This study examined the morbidity patterns of foreign-born Hispanics, U.S.-born Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites aged 53 years and older using seven self-reported physician-diagnosed chronic diseases as well as six biomarkers. Drawing on the 2006 Health and Retirement Study and its biomarker data, the authors found that foreign-born Hispanics had comparable or lower rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, chronic lung disease, and stroke, controlling for age and gender. The health advantages were robust when socioeconomic conditions and health behaviors were controlled. Foreign-born Hispanics were not significantly different from U.S.-born Hispanics except for a lower risk for arthritis. In terms of biomarkers, foreign-born Hispanics were not statistically different from Whites except for having higher risks of high systolic blood pressure and blood glucose. Future research should explore multiple factors contributing to the lower rates of major chronic diseases...

The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2001

Objectives. Rapid growth in the size of the childless elderly population has prompted concerns ab... more Objectives. Rapid growth in the size of the childless elderly population has prompted concerns about the negative effects of childlessness on psychological well-being. This study adds to this line of inquiry by examining the effects of childlessness on two important dimensions of elderly persons' psychological well-being: loneliness and depression. Methods. Using the 1993 Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old data set, the authors estimated logistic and ordinary least squares regression models of psychological well-being for a nationally representative sample of people aged 70 and older (N ϭ 6,517). Results. Childlessness per se did not significantly increase the prevalence of loneliness and depression at advanced ages, net of other factors. There also was no statistical evidence for the hypothesis that childlessness increases loneliness and depression for divorced, widowed, and never married elderly persons. Sex, however, altered how childlessness and marital status influenced psychological well-being. Divorced, widowed, and never married men who were childless had significantly higher rates of loneliness compared with women in comparable circumstances; divorced and widowed men who were childless also had significantly higher rates of depression than divorced and widowed women. Discussion. The findings suggest that it is important to understand the consequences of childlessness in the context of marital status and sex.

Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 2011

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2020

Objectives We provide the first nationally representative population-based study of cognitive dis... more Objectives We provide the first nationally representative population-based study of cognitive disparities among same-sex and different-sex couples in the United States. Methods We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000–2016). The sample included 23,669 respondents (196 same-sex partners and 23,473 different-sex partners) aged 50 and older who contributed to 85,117 person-period records (496 from same-sex partners and 84,621 from different-sex partners). Cognitive impairment was assessed using the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. Mixed-effects discrete-time hazard regression models were estimated to predict the odds of cognitive impairment. Results The estimated odds of cognitive impairment were 78% (p < .01) higher for same-sex partners than for different-sex partners. This disparity was mainly explained by differences in marital status and, to a much lesser extent, by differences in physical and mental health. Specifically, a si...

SSM - population health, 2016

China accounts for a large number of suicides worldwide, and most occur in rural areas. Suicide r... more China accounts for a large number of suicides worldwide, and most occur in rural areas. Suicide research in China has primarily focused on individual-level risk factors, few have studied the influence of neighborhood contexts. This ecological study examines the association of suicide rates with social fragmentation and socioeconomic deprivation in Chinese rural villages. Data from the community survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were analyzed using negative binomial regression. A total of 307 rural villages were included. The community survey collected data about the villages from local leaders. Suicide counts were measured by the leaders' report of the number of suicide deaths in the villages. Social fragmentation was indicated by out-migration, in-migration and ethnic diversity; socioeconomic deprivation was indicated by physical infrastructure, illiteracy rates and public transit accessibility. The results show that higher incidence rates of suicide ...

Innovation in Aging

Objectives: 1) Examine effects of depression and hypertension on cardiovascular events (CV) in a ... more Objectives: 1) Examine effects of depression and hypertension on cardiovascular events (CV) in a two-year period. 2) Explore urban and rural differences Methods: Data from the first two waves of Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, with a national sample of 14,560 adults age 45+, were used. The dependent variable is whether a CV (defined as heart attack or stroke) occurred between baseline and W2 (1=Yes, 0=No), based on respondents’ report at W2. Depression was dichotomized using a score of 12 on the 10-item CES-D. Hypertension was based on self-report. Logistic regression was conducted. Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics and nine other chronic conditions. All independent variables were measured at baseline. Results: About 5.3% (n=768) of the sample had a CV between baseline and W2. Depression increases the risks of CV by 67% for rural (OR=1.67, 95% CI=1.3, 2.12) and 42% for urban respondents (OR=1.42, 95% CI=1.05, 1.91). Hypertension increases the ris...

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B

Objectives We provide one of the first population-based studies of variation in dementia by marit... more Objectives We provide one of the first population-based studies of variation in dementia by marital status in the U.S. Method We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2014). The sample included 15,379 respondents (6,650 men and 8,729 women) age 52 and over in 2000 who showed no evidence of dementia at the baseline survey. Dementia was assessed using either the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) or the proxy’s assessment. Discrete-time hazard regression models were estimated to predict odds of dementia. Results All unmarried groups, including the cohabiting, divorced/separated, widowed, and never married, had significantly higher odds of developing dementia over the study period than their married counterparts; economic resources and, to a lesser degree, health-related factors accounted for only part of the marital status variation in dementia. For divorced/separated and widowed respondents, the differences in the odds of dement...

International Journal of Population Studies

With the rapid aging of the Chinese population, growing attention has been given to old-age suppo... more With the rapid aging of the Chinese population, growing attention has been given to old-age support. Widowed older adults constitute a particularly vulnerable population because the loss of a spouse can lead to financial hardships and emotional distress. We used data from the 2002 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey to examine multiple dimensions of old-age support among a nationwide sample of widowed old adults ages 65 and older (N = 10,511). The results show that Chinese widows and widowers rely heavily on their adult children, particularly sons and daughters-in-law, for financial, instrumental, and emotional support. Widowed older adults’ needs and the number of children are the most significant predictors of old-age support. Widowed older adults with multiple marriages have a lower likelihood of receiving financial assistance, sick care, and emotional support from their children compared to their counterparts who have married only once. There appears to be same-gender ...

Innovation in Aging

Objectives The likelihood of providing care to a spouse in middle and older ages has increased as... more Objectives The likelihood of providing care to a spouse in middle and older ages has increased as life expectancy increases, but knowledge about how the caregiver and care recipient influence each other’s mental health is limited. This study examined whether a partner’s physical, cognitive, and mental health in a spousal caregiving dyad are associated with the other partner’s depressive symptoms in China and whether the dyadic effects vary by gender. Methods This study used data from Wave 3 (2015) and Wave 4 (2018) follow-up surveys of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The analytic sample featured 1,245 dyads of care recipients aged 45 or older and their spouse caregivers. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was used to test the dyadic effects among all couples in the analytic sample, couples with wife caregivers and couples with husband caregivers, respectively. Results We found that caregiver’s depressive symptoms at Wave 3 were significantly associa...

Geriatrics, Jun 7, 2018

The objective of this study was to examine how age at first marriage is related to the risk of de... more The objective of this study was to examine how age at first marriage is related to the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and cancer in later life. We analyzed longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 2129 older adults (born in the 1940s or earlier) in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. We found that for men in this cohort, the age at first marriage that was related to the lowest risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancer in later life was the early 30s; men who first married at either younger or older ages had significantly higher odds of experiencing CVD and cancer. Interestingly, for women in this cohort, the age at first marriage was not related to the risk of either CVD or cancer.

Innovation in Aging, 2018

Older adults produce more high-confidence recognition memory errors in episodic memory tasks. We ... more Older adults produce more high-confidence recognition memory errors in episodic memory tasks. We studied how distinctive encoding enhances the retrieval-monitoring accuracy in older adults (OA) and younger adults (YA). Individuals viewed words consisting of four randomly selected exemplars (e.g., SALMON, BASS, PERCH, SHARK) from a taxonomic category (e.g., FISH), one being designated as the to-be-remembered target. Participants experienced one of two orienting tasks at encoding: Shared (generate a shared feature, e.g., GILLS) or Difference (generate a distinctive feature of the target). Recall and recognition were tested after a 7-day delay for YA and a 2-day delay for OA (equating them on memory performance). We collected Feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments before and retrospective confidence judgments (CJs) after a five-alternative forced-choice (5AFC) recognition test. 5AFC lures were either previously presented (old) exemplars or new category exemplars. Recall and recognition memory were better in the Difference condition. Shared processing produced more high-confidence memory errors for both age groups, especially OAs (p < .01). Both age groups were lured by old exemplars after Shared processing, with more errors for older adults. This age difference disappeared with Difference processing, generating better CJ resolution (correlation of CJs with 5AFC accuracy). FOK resolution was very low for both age groups. Results indicate two routes to 5AFC errors: reliance on episodic familiarity over recollection and reliance on semantic activation and interference. Distinctiveness encoding boosts recollection and reduces illusory semantic activation during test, which is especially helpful to older adults in reducing false memories.

Social science & medicine (1982), 2016

The fetal origins hypothesis posits that adverse prenatal exposures, particularly malnutrition, i... more The fetal origins hypothesis posits that adverse prenatal exposures, particularly malnutrition, increase the risk of poor adult health. Studies using famine as a natural experiment to test the fetal origins hypothesis present conflicting findings, partly because of data limitations and modeling flaws. Capitalizing on the biomarker data and prefecture-level geographic information from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this study estimates the effects of prenatal exposure to China's 1959-61 famine on later-life risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Our analysis addresses the problems of measurement error and intrinsic cohort differences that challenge prior studies. We use provincial and prefecture-level geographic variations in famine severity, a proxy for prenatal malnutrition, for model identification. We construct instrumental variables from geocoded newspaper archive data to adjust for measurement error in famine exposure. We find that estimat...

Journal of cross-cultural gerontology, 2014

This paper examines how adult children's expressed filial piety, receipt of help from parents... more This paper examines how adult children's expressed filial piety, receipt of help from parents, socioeconomic resources, and parents' needs are associated with the likelihood of parent-child coresidence in contemporary China. Drawing on the 2002 wave of the Chinese Survey of Family Dynamics and the 2002 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, we used logistic regression to analyze correlates of coresidence with parents of 3,938 married adult children, aged 35 to 65. Results show that the stronger the filial piety expressed by adult children, the higher their likelihood of coresiding with their parents. Married adult children are also more likely to coreside with elderly parents who have provided intensive grandchild care and financial support or with those who need financial, physical, and emotional support. However, adult children who own homes are significantly less likely to live with their parents than are those who do not. These findings suggest that c...

Social Science & Medicine, 2019

Although the association between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and late-life cognition is ... more Although the association between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and late-life cognition is well-established, the mechanisms underlying this association are less clear. One important potential mediator seldom examined is adolescent cognitive ability. To address this gap, we examined 5,880 respondents from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which follows a random sample of high school students who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. Structural equation models were used to examine the direct and indirect effects of childhood SES on cognition in late midlife through adolescent cognitive ability, educational attainment, midlife economic condition, and midlife health. Cognitive function was measured as a latent variable composed of scores from 6 cognitive assessments including immediate and delayed recall, digit ordering, letter and category fluency, and a subset of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale similarities test. We found that childhood SES predicts cognition in late midlife, and this association is largely mediated by adolescent cognitive ability and educational achievement and to a lesser extent by midlife economic condition and health. The findings underscore the long-arm of childhood SES in cognitive function in later life and highlight the complex life-course pathways underlying the association between childhood SES and cognition.

Journal of aging and health, Jan 22, 2015

Studies have reported that rural elders in China have higher levels of depression than their urba... more Studies have reported that rural elders in China have higher levels of depression than their urban peers. We aimed to examine the extent to which four sets of factors (socioeconomic status [SES], health care access, health status, and social support and participation) account for such rural-urban differences. Cross-sectional data from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were analyzed. A representative sample (N = 5,103) of older Chinese (age 60+) was included. Depressive symptoms were measured by the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10). Multilevel linear regression was conducted. Rural elders had more depressive symptoms than urban elders. When SES at the individual, household, and community level was simultaneously controlled, the rural-urban difference lost its statistical significance. Health status, social support, and social participation accounted for some, whereas health care access explained almost none, of the rural-urban ...

Couple relationships in the middle and later years: Their nature, complexity, and role in health and illness., 2016

Ageing and Society, 2019

Substantial research shows that cardiovascular disease is a major cause of disability in the Unit... more Substantial research shows that cardiovascular disease is a major cause of disability in the United States of America (USA) and worldwide. Despite the well-documented significance of intimate partnerships for cardiovascular health and disease management, how relationship quality contributes to the functional health of older adults diagnosed with cardiovascular disease is much less understood than mental health and mortality risk. Informed by the disablement process model and the lifecourse perspective, this study examines the association between relationship quality and functional limitations among partnered older adults aged 50 years and older diagnosed with cardiovascular disease in the USA. Data are from the Health and Retirement Study, 2006–2012 (N = 1,355). Multi-level linear regression analyses show that baseline negative relationship quality is significantly associated with increased functional limitations over the two- and four-year follow-ups. Additionally, the link between...

Population Research and Policy Review, 2017

This study examines the self-reported health of 180,291 married non-Hispanic blacks and whites in... more This study examines the self-reported health of 180,291 married non-Hispanic blacks and whites in interracial versus endogamous marriages. Data are from the National Health Interview Survey pooled over the period 1997–2013. The results from ordinal logistic regressions show that non-Hispanic whites intermarried with non-Hispanic blacks, non-Hispanic whites intermarried with non-Hispanic other races, and non-Hispanic white women with Hispanic husbands report significantly poorer health than their endogamous counterparts. Furthermore, non-Hispanic whites with non-Hispanic black spouses also fare worse than their interracially married peers with Hispanic spouses. In contrast, the self-reported health of married non-Hispanic blacks shows no significant difference between the interracially and the endogamously married. Our findings highlight the theoretical significance of spousal characteristics and couple-level contexts in the household production of health.

Research on Aging, 2012

This study examined the morbidity patterns of foreign-born Hispanics, U.S.-born Hispanics, Blacks... more This study examined the morbidity patterns of foreign-born Hispanics, U.S.-born Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites aged 53 years and older using seven self-reported physician-diagnosed chronic diseases as well as six biomarkers. Drawing on the 2006 Health and Retirement Study and its biomarker data, the authors found that foreign-born Hispanics had comparable or lower rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, chronic lung disease, and stroke, controlling for age and gender. The health advantages were robust when socioeconomic conditions and health behaviors were controlled. Foreign-born Hispanics were not significantly different from U.S.-born Hispanics except for a lower risk for arthritis. In terms of biomarkers, foreign-born Hispanics were not statistically different from Whites except for having higher risks of high systolic blood pressure and blood glucose. Future research should explore multiple factors contributing to the lower rates of major chronic diseases...

The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2001

Objectives. Rapid growth in the size of the childless elderly population has prompted concerns ab... more Objectives. Rapid growth in the size of the childless elderly population has prompted concerns about the negative effects of childlessness on psychological well-being. This study adds to this line of inquiry by examining the effects of childlessness on two important dimensions of elderly persons' psychological well-being: loneliness and depression. Methods. Using the 1993 Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old data set, the authors estimated logistic and ordinary least squares regression models of psychological well-being for a nationally representative sample of people aged 70 and older (N ϭ 6,517). Results. Childlessness per se did not significantly increase the prevalence of loneliness and depression at advanced ages, net of other factors. There also was no statistical evidence for the hypothesis that childlessness increases loneliness and depression for divorced, widowed, and never married elderly persons. Sex, however, altered how childlessness and marital status influenced psychological well-being. Divorced, widowed, and never married men who were childless had significantly higher rates of loneliness compared with women in comparable circumstances; divorced and widowed men who were childless also had significantly higher rates of depression than divorced and widowed women. Discussion. The findings suggest that it is important to understand the consequences of childlessness in the context of marital status and sex.

Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, 2011

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2020

Objectives We provide the first nationally representative population-based study of cognitive dis... more Objectives We provide the first nationally representative population-based study of cognitive disparities among same-sex and different-sex couples in the United States. Methods We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000–2016). The sample included 23,669 respondents (196 same-sex partners and 23,473 different-sex partners) aged 50 and older who contributed to 85,117 person-period records (496 from same-sex partners and 84,621 from different-sex partners). Cognitive impairment was assessed using the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. Mixed-effects discrete-time hazard regression models were estimated to predict the odds of cognitive impairment. Results The estimated odds of cognitive impairment were 78% (p < .01) higher for same-sex partners than for different-sex partners. This disparity was mainly explained by differences in marital status and, to a much lesser extent, by differences in physical and mental health. Specifically, a si...

SSM - population health, 2016

China accounts for a large number of suicides worldwide, and most occur in rural areas. Suicide r... more China accounts for a large number of suicides worldwide, and most occur in rural areas. Suicide research in China has primarily focused on individual-level risk factors, few have studied the influence of neighborhood contexts. This ecological study examines the association of suicide rates with social fragmentation and socioeconomic deprivation in Chinese rural villages. Data from the community survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were analyzed using negative binomial regression. A total of 307 rural villages were included. The community survey collected data about the villages from local leaders. Suicide counts were measured by the leaders' report of the number of suicide deaths in the villages. Social fragmentation was indicated by out-migration, in-migration and ethnic diversity; socioeconomic deprivation was indicated by physical infrastructure, illiteracy rates and public transit accessibility. The results show that higher incidence rates of suicide ...

Innovation in Aging

Objectives: 1) Examine effects of depression and hypertension on cardiovascular events (CV) in a ... more Objectives: 1) Examine effects of depression and hypertension on cardiovascular events (CV) in a two-year period. 2) Explore urban and rural differences Methods: Data from the first two waves of Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, with a national sample of 14,560 adults age 45+, were used. The dependent variable is whether a CV (defined as heart attack or stroke) occurred between baseline and W2 (1=Yes, 0=No), based on respondents’ report at W2. Depression was dichotomized using a score of 12 on the 10-item CES-D. Hypertension was based on self-report. Logistic regression was conducted. Covariates included sociodemographic characteristics and nine other chronic conditions. All independent variables were measured at baseline. Results: About 5.3% (n=768) of the sample had a CV between baseline and W2. Depression increases the risks of CV by 67% for rural (OR=1.67, 95% CI=1.3, 2.12) and 42% for urban respondents (OR=1.42, 95% CI=1.05, 1.91). Hypertension increases the ris...

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B

Objectives We provide one of the first population-based studies of variation in dementia by marit... more Objectives We provide one of the first population-based studies of variation in dementia by marital status in the U.S. Method We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2014). The sample included 15,379 respondents (6,650 men and 8,729 women) age 52 and over in 2000 who showed no evidence of dementia at the baseline survey. Dementia was assessed using either the modified version of the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) or the proxy’s assessment. Discrete-time hazard regression models were estimated to predict odds of dementia. Results All unmarried groups, including the cohabiting, divorced/separated, widowed, and never married, had significantly higher odds of developing dementia over the study period than their married counterparts; economic resources and, to a lesser degree, health-related factors accounted for only part of the marital status variation in dementia. For divorced/separated and widowed respondents, the differences in the odds of dement...

International Journal of Population Studies

With the rapid aging of the Chinese population, growing attention has been given to old-age suppo... more With the rapid aging of the Chinese population, growing attention has been given to old-age support. Widowed older adults constitute a particularly vulnerable population because the loss of a spouse can lead to financial hardships and emotional distress. We used data from the 2002 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey to examine multiple dimensions of old-age support among a nationwide sample of widowed old adults ages 65 and older (N = 10,511). The results show that Chinese widows and widowers rely heavily on their adult children, particularly sons and daughters-in-law, for financial, instrumental, and emotional support. Widowed older adults’ needs and the number of children are the most significant predictors of old-age support. Widowed older adults with multiple marriages have a lower likelihood of receiving financial assistance, sick care, and emotional support from their children compared to their counterparts who have married only once. There appears to be same-gender ...