Impact of children's migration on health and health care-seeking behavior of elderly left behind (original) (raw)
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The Effects of Children’s Migration on Elderly Kin’s Health: A Counterfactual Approach
Demography, 2011
Recent studies of migration and the left-behind have found that elders with migrant children actually experience better health outcomes than those with no migrant children, yet these studies raise many concerns about self-selection. Using three rounds of panel survey data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey, we employ the counterfactual framework developed by Rosenbaum and Rubin to examine the relationship between having a migrant child and the health of elders aged 50 and older, as measured by activities of daily living (ADL), self-rated health (SRH), and mortality. As in earlier studies, we find a positive association between old-age health and children’s migration, an effect that is partly explained by an individual’s propensity to have migrant children. Positive impacts of migration are much greater among elders with a high propensity to have migrant children than among those with low propensity. We note that migration is one of the single greatest sources of health disparity among the elders in our study population, and point to the need for research and policy aimed at broadening the benefits of migration to better improve health systems rather than individual health.
The study aims to shed a light on the impact of the internal migration children and other factors on the physical and mental health of the old-age parents left behind. By the data of Vietnamese Aging Survey in the year 2011 (VNAS 2011), the study applied logistic regression models in order to analyze the impact of the internal migration children and other factors on the elderly's health in terms of (1) poor mental health; (2) self-rated health; (3) chronic diseases; (4) illness; (5) treatment sought for diseases/illness; (6) activities of daily living; and (7) body function limits. The logistic regression models' independent variables are having at least one child internally migrate, age, gender, living arrangement, residential region, education level, as well as the household's income. The study proves that in general, in Vietnam the old-age parents' physical and mental health is not impacted by their internal migration children. However, the male elderly are more likely to have poor mental health than the female elderly as their children domestically migrate. The study further investigates that the physical and mental health of the elderly are relevant to other factors, namely the household's income; gender; age; residential region; living arrangement or education level.
The Linkage of Life Course, Migration, Health, and Aging
Journal of Aging and Health, 2011
Migration is a phenomenon that impacts individuals throughout the life course. Particularly, Mexican elderly migrants show evidence of lifetime accumulations of the effects of migration on health conditions. Objectives: Examine how the relationship between historical time and individual time explains different factors impacting the health of Mexican adult and elderly migrants in Mexico and the United States. Method: Data from in-depth interviews with Mexican migrants living in selected locations in Mexico and the United States were used to illustrate the links between life course conditions, aging, migration, and health outcomes. Results and Discussion: According to this theoretical perspective and the data, historical time, age at migration, and the conditions under which the migration trajectory developed, show different impacts on the health and quality of life of the elderly, as revealed through analysis of labor experience, disease and accidents, medical service, health treatme...