Health and wellbeing among the empty nest and non-empty nest elderly in China—Results from a national cross-sectional study

Xu, Sijie; Yang, Xiaocong; Liu, Jieyu; Chong, Marc Ka-Chun; Cheng, Yu; Gong, Weiwei; Zou, Guanyang

Abstract

Background
The number of empty nest elderly in China has gradually increased in recent years. There is growing concern about the physical and mental health of this population as empty nest elderly are commonly at the risk of compromising health, home safety and quality of life. This study reported the health and well-being of empty nest elderly with regards to their health status, depression and satisfaction, lifestyle as compared to non-empty nest elderly in China.

Methods
Data was collected from the 2018 follow-up interviews of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey. We included 4,630 empty nest elderly and 6,188 non-empty nest elderly. Chi-square Test and Logistic Regression were used to compare the differences between these two groups.

Results
As compared to the non-empty nest elderly, there was higher proportion of empty nest elderly who suffered from dyslipidemia, diabetes, chronic lung diseases, heart attack (27.0% vs. 25.0%; 16.6% vs. 15.1%; 19.4% vs. 16.4%; 26.3% vs. 23.4%, P < 0.05). The empty nest elderly had higher proportion of participants who drank more than once a month (25.3% vs. 23.9%, P < 0.05), who felt satisfied with their marriage (71.6% vs. 66.2%, P < 0.001), who were satisfied with their children’s relationship (85.2% vs. 83.2%, P < 0.001). However, these significances disappeared in the Logistic Regression analysis (P > 0.05).

Conclusion
Our study showed that significant between-group difference was found between empty nest elderly and non-empty nest elderly in their health and wellbeing. However, disappearance of such difference in the multivariable analysis may indicate improved health and wellbeing among the empty nest elderly. Even though our study still suggested the importance of improving the health, lifestyles and family dynamics of the elderly and promoting the integration of health and social care for the elderly, especially among the empty nest elderly.

Citation

Xu, S., Yang, X., Liu, J., Chong, M. K.-C., Cheng, Y., Gong, W., & Zou, G. (2023). Health and wellbeing among the empty nest and non-empty nest elderly in China—Results from a national cross-sectional study. PLoS ONE, 18(9), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291231

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 15, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 12, 2023
• Publication Date: Sep 12, 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 18, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 18, 2023
• Journal: PLOS One
• Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 1-15
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291231
• Publisher URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0291231
• Additional Information: Data Access Statement : CHARLS is publicly available from the National School of Development, Peking University (http://charls.pku.edu.cn/en/). Access to the data is granted upon registration and application at the following websites: http://charls.pku.edu.cn/en/. Furthermore, the data employed in this study can be found in the Supporting Information files.