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Kinlessness, Loneliness, and End of Life: A Cross-National Comparison of 20 Countries
Countries across the globe are experiencing declining rates of fertility and marriage, which present a distinct challenge for older adults’ social integration, well-being, and end-of-life care. However, older adults who are “alone” (e.g., no partner, no child) may not be lonely, and end-of-life risk...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7743004/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2039 |
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author | Calvo, Esteban Mair, Christine Ornstein, Katherine Donoso, Rosario Medina, José |
author_facet | Calvo, Esteban Mair, Christine Ornstein, Katherine Donoso, Rosario Medina, José |
author_sort | Calvo, Esteban |
collection | PubMed |
description | Countries across the globe are experiencing declining rates of fertility and marriage, which present a distinct challenge for older adults’ social integration, well-being, and end-of-life care. However, older adults who are “alone” (e.g., no partner, no child) may not be lonely, and end-of-life risks faced by “kinless” older adults likely vary significantly by country context. Using harmonized, cross-national data from 20 countries (United States (HRS), England (ELSA), and European Union (SHARE)), we examine associations between family structure, loneliness, and end-of-life outcomes. Although “kinless” family structures are associated with greater loneliness in the pooled sample, the percent of “kinless” who report no signs of loneliness ranges from 7% (Greece) to 56% (Denmark). Family structure is associated with various end-of-life outcomes, and these associations vary by country—likely reflecting differences in healthcare structure. We discuss distinctions between “being alone,” “being lonely,” and “being without care” in light of cross-national variation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7743004 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-77430042020-12-21 Kinlessness, Loneliness, and End of Life: A Cross-National Comparison of 20 Countries Calvo, Esteban Mair, Christine Ornstein, Katherine Donoso, Rosario Medina, José Innov Aging Abstracts Countries across the globe are experiencing declining rates of fertility and marriage, which present a distinct challenge for older adults’ social integration, well-being, and end-of-life care. However, older adults who are “alone” (e.g., no partner, no child) may not be lonely, and end-of-life risks faced by “kinless” older adults likely vary significantly by country context. Using harmonized, cross-national data from 20 countries (United States (HRS), England (ELSA), and European Union (SHARE)), we examine associations between family structure, loneliness, and end-of-life outcomes. Although “kinless” family structures are associated with greater loneliness in the pooled sample, the percent of “kinless” who report no signs of loneliness ranges from 7% (Greece) to 56% (Denmark). Family structure is associated with various end-of-life outcomes, and these associations vary by country—likely reflecting differences in healthcare structure. We discuss distinctions between “being alone,” “being lonely,” and “being without care” in light of cross-national variation. Oxford University Press 2020-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7743004/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2039 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Abstracts Calvo, Esteban Mair, Christine Ornstein, Katherine Donoso, Rosario Medina, José Kinlessness, Loneliness, and End of Life: A Cross-National Comparison of 20 Countries |
title | Kinlessness, Loneliness, and End of Life: A Cross-National Comparison of 20 Countries |
title_full | Kinlessness, Loneliness, and End of Life: A Cross-National Comparison of 20 Countries |
title_fullStr | Kinlessness, Loneliness, and End of Life: A Cross-National Comparison of 20 Countries |
title_full_unstemmed | Kinlessness, Loneliness, and End of Life: A Cross-National Comparison of 20 Countries |
title_short | Kinlessness, Loneliness, and End of Life: A Cross-National Comparison of 20 Countries |
title_sort | kinlessness, loneliness, and end of life: a cross-national comparison of 20 countries |
topic | Abstracts |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7743004/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2039 |
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