Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa: Exploring the Social and Structural Drivers of Subjective Wellbeing among Elderly Men and Women in Uganda

While literature attempts to explain why self-reported subjective wellbeing (SWB) generally increases with age in most high-income countries based on a social determinants of a health framework, little work attempts to explain the low levels of self-report SWB among older persons in sub-Saharan Afri...

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Autores principales: Rishworth, Andrea, Elliott, Susan J., Kangmennaang, Joseph
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7177324/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32244270
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072347
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author Rishworth, Andrea
Elliott, Susan J.
Kangmennaang, Joseph
author_facet Rishworth, Andrea
Elliott, Susan J.
Kangmennaang, Joseph
author_sort Rishworth, Andrea
collection PubMed
description While literature attempts to explain why self-reported subjective wellbeing (SWB) generally increases with age in most high-income countries based on a social determinants of a health framework, little work attempts to explain the low levels of self-report SWB among older persons in sub-Saharan Africa. Using the 2013 Uganda Study on Global Aging and Health with 470 individuals, this research examines (i) direct and indirect effects of age on SWB through social and structural determinants, and (ii) how direct and indirect effects vary by gender. Results show a significant direct and negative effect of age on SWB (β = 0.42, p = 0.01). Six indirect paths were statistically significant and their indirect effects on wellbeing varied by gender. Providing support, education, working status, asset level, financial status and financial improvement were significantly positively associated with men’s SWB, whereas younger age, providing community support, participating in group activities, number of close friends/relatives, government assistance and all socio-economic variables were significantly positively associated with women’s SWB. Strategies to address gendered economic, social and political inequalities among and between elderly populations are urgently needed.
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spelling pubmed-71773242020-04-28 Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa: Exploring the Social and Structural Drivers of Subjective Wellbeing among Elderly Men and Women in Uganda Rishworth, Andrea Elliott, Susan J. Kangmennaang, Joseph Int J Environ Res Public Health Article While literature attempts to explain why self-reported subjective wellbeing (SWB) generally increases with age in most high-income countries based on a social determinants of a health framework, little work attempts to explain the low levels of self-report SWB among older persons in sub-Saharan Africa. Using the 2013 Uganda Study on Global Aging and Health with 470 individuals, this research examines (i) direct and indirect effects of age on SWB through social and structural determinants, and (ii) how direct and indirect effects vary by gender. Results show a significant direct and negative effect of age on SWB (β = 0.42, p = 0.01). Six indirect paths were statistically significant and their indirect effects on wellbeing varied by gender. Providing support, education, working status, asset level, financial status and financial improvement were significantly positively associated with men’s SWB, whereas younger age, providing community support, participating in group activities, number of close friends/relatives, government assistance and all socio-economic variables were significantly positively associated with women’s SWB. Strategies to address gendered economic, social and political inequalities among and between elderly populations are urgently needed. MDPI 2020-03-31 2020-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7177324/ /pubmed/32244270 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072347 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Rishworth, Andrea
Elliott, Susan J.
Kangmennaang, Joseph
Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa: Exploring the Social and Structural Drivers of Subjective Wellbeing among Elderly Men and Women in Uganda
title Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa: Exploring the Social and Structural Drivers of Subjective Wellbeing among Elderly Men and Women in Uganda
title_full Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa: Exploring the Social and Structural Drivers of Subjective Wellbeing among Elderly Men and Women in Uganda
title_fullStr Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa: Exploring the Social and Structural Drivers of Subjective Wellbeing among Elderly Men and Women in Uganda
title_full_unstemmed Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa: Exploring the Social and Structural Drivers of Subjective Wellbeing among Elderly Men and Women in Uganda
title_short Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa: Exploring the Social and Structural Drivers of Subjective Wellbeing among Elderly Men and Women in Uganda
title_sort getting old well in sub saharan africa: exploring the social and structural drivers of subjective wellbeing among elderly men and women in uganda
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7177324/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32244270
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072347
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