Gender Differences in Widowhood Effects Among Community-Dwelling Elders by Causes of Death in Taiwan

Purpose We sought to determine whether widowhood-associated excess mortality differs by gender in terms of causes of death. Methods Data were collected from a five-wave interview of approximately 2500 community-dwelling elders in the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Nearly Elderly and Elder...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of epidemiology 2012-07, Vol.22 (7), p.457-465
Main Authors: Fang, Shao-You, MS, Huang, Nicole, PhD, Chen, Kuang-Hung, MS, Yeh, Hsueh-Han, MS, Lin, Keh-Ming, MD, MPH, Chen, Chuan-Yu, PhD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Cause of Death
Elderly
Female
Gender Differences
Humans
Internal Medicine
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Middle Aged
Proportional Hazards Models
Risk
Risk Score
Sex Factors
Social Environment
Taiwan - epidemiology
Widowhood
Widowhood - statistics & numerical data
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Summary:Purpose We sought to determine whether widowhood-associated excess mortality differs by gender in terms of causes of death. Methods Data were collected from a five-wave interview of approximately 2500 community-dwelling elders in the Survey of Health and Living Status of the Nearly Elderly and Elderly. Baseline characteristics were used to derive the risk score (RS) to reflect individual’s baseline pre-widowhood vulnerability. Time-dependent Cox regression analyses were used to estimate spousal loss-related mortality by causes. Results For males, the adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) of widowhood for all-cause and some major causes of death (e.g., neoplasm) increased inversely with RS: the aHRs for all-cause death were 4.81 and 1.76 in the lowest and highest RS groups, respectively. In contrast, the corresponding aHRs were relatively homogeneous for women (1.52 and 1.70). Conclusions Identifying gender heterogeneity in widowhood effects can guide further efforts to devise gender-tailored programs to enhance healthy aging.
ISSN:1047-2797
1873-2585
DOI:10.1016/j.annepidem.2012.04.008