Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology最新文献

This study examined the demographic, socioeconomic, health, and well-being of rural-dwelling older Cambodians and identified differentials based on age and gender. The goal is to understand disparities in wealth, health, well-being, and support systems among older adults within the context of Cambodia's history of civil unrest and socio-cultural norms. A regionally representative sample from three northwestern Cambodian provinces was used to evaluate household wealth, economic satisfaction, health, psychological well-being, social support, and a government welfare program. Analysis was conducted to document how these factors differed by age and gender. Significant gender differentials in demographics, well-being, and support systems were observed. Older women outnumbered men and reported lower levels of social support and psychological well-being, potentially influenced by high widowhood rates and gender-linked cultural norms. Education levels were generally low, possibly due to disruption from wars and conflicts. Relative to neighboring countries, the health status of older Cambodians was poor, though no significant gender-based health disparities were identified. There were differences in debt and wealth accumulation among age groups but no variation in welfare support by age or gender. These findings underline the significance of addressing gender disparities and socio-cultural factors affecting older Cambodians. They underscore the need for policy attention toward older women's psychological well-being and support systems, as well as health and social support interventions for the oldest age groups. Future research should investigate these observed patterns, accounting for regional variations and survivor selection bias.

Objective: Neuropsychological assessment among U.S. Arabic-speaking older adults is virtually non-existent due to lack of translated measures and normative data, as well as researchers' limited access to Middle Eastern/Arab Americans. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is the only validated, widely-used dementia screen with Arabic language norms/cutoffs, yet, Arabic MoCA translations vary across countries and studies. We examined utility of a modified translation among Arabic-speaking immigrants in metro-Detroit.

Methods: The Arabic MoCA was modified to reflect consistency with the original English version while remaining meaningful in the Arabic language. The MoCA was then administered to 32 Arabic-speaking adults age 65 + living in metro-Detroit. Eight (25%) had an Alzheimer's disease or related dementia (ADRD) diagnosis. Each item was standardized and Cronbach's alpha assessed reliability. Ordinary least squares models examined whether an ADRD diagnosis predicts the total MoCA score and each item, adjusting for demographics.

Results: The mean age of the sample was 73 years old. The alpha was acceptably high at 0.87. Bivariate analyses show those with ADRD diagnosis scored lower overall on the MoCA. However, probability of diagnosis and age were confounded in the sample such that in multivariate analyses ADRD diagnosis did not explain additional variation beyond what is explained by age. Orientation, cube-copy test and serial 7s best distinguished those with ADRD.

Conclusion: The modified Arabic language MoCA shows promise distinguishing those with an ADRD diagnosis. This translation provides a resource for neuropsychologists looking for translated tests when working with Arabic-speaking patients in the U.S.

This study aims to develop and validate the content and response processes of a questionnaire intended for caregivers to screen for dysphagia in Brazilian older adults with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease and/or vascular dementia. The instrument items were developed in Brazilian Portuguese language based on the theoretical framework. A committee of speech-language-hearing therapists analyzed the relevance, objectivity, clarity, and understandability of the items with the Delphi method. The content validity index cutoff agreement score for experts' answers to validate each item in the questionnaire was 0.78; in the intraclass correlation coefficient, it was 0.75 for all items. For response process validity evidence, the questionnaire was applied to 30 caregivers of older adults with dementia, who judged the clarity and understandability of the items. Each item was validated when understood by at least 95% of participants. The first version of the instrument had 29 items. After two expert assessments, the last version had 24 items. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.85. Only one item needed semantic adjustments in the pre-test. The dysphagia screening instrument applied to caregivers of older adults with dementia was developed with adequate content and response process validity evidence, enabling adjustments in its construct. Future studies will analyze the remaining evidence of validity and reliability.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the growing importance of digital technologies for economic resilience, especially for vulnerable groups like older workers in the informal sector. However, barriers to access and digital literacy create challenges alongside potential opportunities, particularly in less developed countries such as Ghana. Using older adults over 50 years engaged in informal work in Kumasi's Central Business District in Ghana as a case, this paper explores older informal workers' use of digital technologies in Ghana during the pandemic. Findings suggest that older informal workers relied heavily on their mobile phones as the only critical technological tool to sustain their businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the findings also reveal critical gaps in skills, training, and support, alongside resourcefulness in leveraging digital tools for business continuity. Key policy implications include expanding mobile-centric digital literacy programs, addressing infrastructure divides, and integrating capacity building into social protection. The paper contributes insights on strengthening lifelong learning and extending the working lives of older persons in the informal sector in the post-COVID era.

Leisure activities enjoyed by older married couples play an important part in creating more meaningful married lives. The study focuses on the prevalence of joint leisure activities by older couples, the factors influencing older adults' engagement in leisure activities together, and the relationship between joint participation in leisure activities and marital satisfaction of older couples. The quantitative sample included 414 married respondents aged 55 years and above from different parts of Vietnam. The leisure activities analyzed in the paper include vacation/travel, watching movies, music, karaoke singing outside the house, walking around the house, attending cultural events and festivals, watching TV, drinking tea, and doing exercise. The study results showed that the level of joint engagement in leisure activities in places near home with less cost was higher than those engaged in elsewhere. Couples with better living standards, higher education, better health, and who lived in urban areas more actively participated in leisure activities far from home. Vietnamese couples who engage in more leisure activities together had a higher level of overall satisfaction with their marriage, and greater satisfaction in several dimensions of their marital relationship than those who did not participate in leisure activities with their partners.

This paper explores how some older residents in B Town, a residential estate in northern Singapore, engage in community building through their 'serious leisure' and 'devotee work' participation in a resident landscaper program. Using data from ethnographic fieldwork conducted from February to November 2020 with participants aged from 60 to 81, I analyze how they built connections with each other, and the wider B Town community, through their participation. Particularly, I examine how the shared identity marker of being former farmers in now-evicted kampungs (villages) before the 1980s drew them together, and informed their continued involvement as resident landscapers. The 'kampung spirit' that they built up through the program enabled the construction of not only social connections, but also exclusionary mechanisms that prevented more older adults from engaging in the activities. These findings highlight participants' agency, and complicate static and/or monolithic conceptualizations of 'aging in place/the community' and 'active aging'.

This paper critically considers the concept of 'productive aging,' maintaining that although the term emerged as an effort to aid older people, it may be normative and potentially coercive. The paper illustrates this premise through an examination of Japan, through analysis of interviews conducted over decades, and, more fully, an analysis of advice books for Japanese seniors over the past twenty years. These advice books show how seniors in Japan are now increasingly urged to find contentment in old age as they themselves see fit, without concern over 'contributing to society.' In crucial respects, Japan has been moving from 'productive aging' to 'happy aging' as a guide for how to age. The paper then considers the judgment inherent in the term 'productive aging'-are some forms of aging better than other forms of aging?-by examining competing conceptions of happiness, advocating on the basis of this examination that the term 'productive aging' be replaced by 'happy aging.'

This paper examines how paid and unpaid work affects leisure differently for older women and men in China and India. We use data from the World Health Organization's Study on Global Aging and Health. We find that urban China, with higher levels of public welfare and gender equality, represents the best scenario for older adults' leisure life in developing countries. Although urban Chinese women are disadvantaged relative to urban Chinese men, they still enjoy longer hours of leisure and relaxing leisure than both men and women in rural China, urban India and rural India. Furthermore, the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition results show gender disparities in unpaid housework to be the primary driver of gender inequalities in leisure in all societies, albeit to varying degrees. These findings highlight the role of public welfare, gender equality, and the gendered consequences of the family support model in shaping older adults' leisure life.

This article introduces the special issue "Leisure and older adults in Asia." Although the study of older adults' participation in leisure has gained traction over the last decade, there is need to consider in greater depth the central role that leisure activities may play in the construction of identities and lifestyles in later life. The collection of articles in this special issue contributes to the emerging literature on the intersection of leisure and aging by presenting diverse contexts and methodologies to build a comprehensive understanding of leisure participation among older adults in China, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore. They reveal a common thread highlighting the close relationship between leisure participation and various quantitative and qualitative markers of well-being and quality of life in old age, such as health, social participation, and sense of self. The papers also highlight the importance of leisure as a socio-cultural resource through which older adults can negotiate their experiences in later life. Through the different case studies and discussion, the special issue contributes to critical Asian perspective regarding the place of leisure within discourses of 'productive'/'successful'/'active' aging.

Religiously inspired travel has burgeoned in Vietnam in recent years, amidst rapid economic development and a booming tourist industry. Buddhist pilgrimages particularly attract older women, who compose the majority of temple goers in Vietnam. Having lived through volatile historical periods of war, economic hardship, and political transformations, travelling on pilgrimage is the first opportunity for many older Vietnamese women to enjoy new places and experiences. Drawing on data collected during my field research among Buddhist women pilgrims in their sixties and seventies from Ho Chi Minh City, I show how pilgrimage is seen as a journey of a lifetime and how it reflects the perception of life and self-transformation along the life course. Drawing on Victor and Edith Turner's (1978 [2011]) discussion of pilgrimage as the antistructure of everyday social life, this paper explains why pilgrimage is markedly different from other life experiences of Vietnamese women, and how religious travel positions old age not as the culmination of self-development, but rather as an ongoing process of gaining wisdom.