Homeownership Among Older Adults: Source of Stability or Stress?

Abstract For older adults, homeownership can be an important source of housing stability and personal wealth that can be tapped in later life, including for long-term care. Nonetheless, owning a home is not without physical and financial challenges for aging households, and many owners are reluctant to take advantage of housing equity later in life. This paper reviews the conditions of older homeowners to assess the degree to which owning a home is—or is not—associated with financial security and housing stability. We review trends in homeowning among older adults, including differences by race/ethnicity and income. We then describe the extent of housing affordability challenges among homeowners, the degree of mortgage indebtedness, and the extent and use of housing equity. Finally, we examine issues related to housing quality and accessibility. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications.

Download Full-text

Housing, Affordability, and Community-Based Aging

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2415 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 690-691

Author(s):

Samara Scheckler

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Older Adult ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Housing Tenure ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Housing Cost ◽

Home Equity ◽

Community Based ◽

Term Care

Abstract The house acts as both an environment of care and a vehicle to financially potentiate long-term community-based support. While housing can empower a diverse set of options for a person-centered aging process, inadequate housing can also impede healthy aging in the community. This symposium teases out the nodes where housing acts to benefit or limit safe community-based aging. The first paper in this symposium, Homeownership Among Older Adults, describes typologies of older adult homeownership and sensitively highlights trends, disparities and important considerations of homeownership in later life. The next two papers take these older adults and explores situations where their housing acts as an asset or as a burden. Identifying Cost Burdened Older Adults acknowledges that housing cost burdens look different for older adults than younger cohorts. A more precise definition of older adult housing cost burden is proposed to help researchers and policymakers better synthesize the complex relationships between older adult housing and their long-term care decisions. The Long-Term Care Financing Challenge then explores the role of home equity in expanding the community-based long-term care choice set for older adults. This paper demonstrates benefits (both realized and unrealized) in home equity and suggests policy implications moving forward. Finally, Cardiometabolic Risk Among Older Renters and Homeowners disentangles the relationship between housing and health by demonstrating health disparities that are associated with housing tenure, conditions and affordability. Taken together, this symposium explores the complex and multidirectional relationships between housing, long-term care and older adult health.

Download Full-text

Ageing Societies and Technological Innovation

Public Administration and Information Technology - Co-creating Digital Public Services for an Ageing Society ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-52873-7_2 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 5-13

Author(s):

Juliane Jarke

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Technological Innovation ◽

Later Life ◽

Care Needs ◽

Demographic Ageing ◽

Term Care ◽

Alternative Measures ◽

Global North ◽

Technological Fix

Abstract Demographic ageing has been declared one of the main challenges for countries in the Global North by politicians, journalists, industry and academia alike. Many frame ageing as a problem that needs a technological fix and most digital technologies designed for older adults, reproduce images about old age defined by ill health, deficits and limitations. Digital public services are no different. However, scholars in critical and social gerontology argue that most of the alarmist rhetoric around demographic ageing and projected social implications are based on flawed assumptions about older people (e.g. their ability to contribute to their communities) and the ageing process (e.g. as solely described in terms of decline and long-term care needs). This chapter reviews dominant concepts about ageing societies, older adults and technological innovation. It argues, that engaging older adults in design processes, allows for alternative measures and attributes of “success” in later life and that participatory approaches can reconfigure how and which imaginaries and social practices are being scripted into technologies.

Download Full-text

Willingness to live in eldercare institutions among older adults in urban and rural China: a nationwide study

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x09990596 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 583-608 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

RITA JING-ANN CHOU

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Filial Piety ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Cultural Beliefs ◽

Institutional Care ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Care Needs ◽

Term Care

ABSTRACTRecent economic development and socio-cultural changes have made it increasingly difficult for Chinese families to provide eldercare. Consequently, institutional care has been strongly promoted to meet older adults' long-term care needs. Although it has been estimated that China needs more beds to meet such needs, unfilled beds have been reported nationwide. One reason for the low occupancy may be a lack of willingness among older adults to live in long-term care institutions. Based on a national survey of 20,255 older adults, this study examined the extent of willingness among older Chinese to live in eldercare institutions, and it was found that in urban and rural areas, only 20 and 17 per cent of older adults, respectively, were willing to do so. Using an integrated theoretical model and logistic regression analyses, this study shows that gender, perceived family harmony, perceived filial piety, socio-cultural beliefs and practices about raising children and eldercare, knowledge and opinion about eldercare institutions, and self-assessed economic status were associated with willingness to live in eldercare institutions for both urban and rural older adults, while other predictors of willingness had different effects. The paper concludes with a discussion of the substantive, theoretical and policy implications for long-term care in China.

Download Full-text

Maybe She’ll Make Some Friends?: Family Members Cultivating Intimacy in Assisted Living

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1573 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 486-487

Author(s):

Andrea Fitzroy ◽

Candace Kemp ◽

Elisabeth Burgess

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Assisted Living ◽

Intimate Relationships ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Participant Observation ◽

Family Members ◽

Later Life ◽

Theory Approach ◽

Term Care

Abstract Intimacy continues to be important in later life, including for older adults in long-term care settings such as assisted living (AL). Our past work shows that intimacy is a multi-dimensional process and can involve a variety of partners. Drawing on data from the qualitative longitudinal “Convoys of Care” study (R01AG044368), we extend this research to examine the role family members play in cultivating intimacy and close relationships of AL residents. Using a grounded theory approach, we analyzed 2,224 hours of participant observation, and formal interviews with 28 assisted living residents (aged 58-96) and their formal and informal care partners (n=114) from four diverse AL communities. Findings show that family members can play integral roles in residents’ experiences with intimacy, directly as relationship partners, and by facilitating or impeding residents’ contacts with others. Family members cultivated residents’ intimacy opportunities and experiences by direct engagement, resident advocacy, to non-involvement and disengagement. Family members’ roles in cultivating intimacy fluctuated over time, increasing at times of health concerns and family change. Perceptive family members considered older adults’ intimacy preferences when cultivating their intimate relationships. Family members concerned for the safety of their loved one sometimes acted as “gatekeepers” to intimacy by interfering in intimate relationships. We conclude with a discussion of implications for policy and practice aimed at improving the intimacy process and opportunities for older adults receiving long-term care.

Download Full-text

Health Literacy and Health Conditions at the Intersections of Gender and Race in Later Life

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.3148 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 871-871

Author(s):

Takashi Yamashita ◽

Darren Liu ◽

Betty Burston ◽

Jennifer Keene

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Black Women ◽

Health Literacy ◽

White Women ◽

Later Life ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Health Conditions ◽

Gender And Race ◽

Optimal Health ◽

Race Ethnicity

Abstract The benefits of health literacy are well-documented. Health literacy is a set of skills to locate, understand, and use health-related information to make optimal health decisions. However, relatively less is known about the long-term relationship between health literacy and overall health conditions among older adults. Additionally, health literacy and health at the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity, rather than gender and race separately, are yet to be investigated. This study analyzed sub-samples (n = 1,260 adults age 50+) of the 2010 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) health literacy module data, and the 2012, 2014, and 2016 HRS data to examine the trajectories of health based on eight physical and mental conditions (0-8 points: better-worse) among older adults. Latent growth curve mixture models were used to investigate the changes in health and six groups defined by gender (women and men) and race/ethnicity (White, Black, and Hispanic). Results showed that overall health deteriorated over time (latent-slope = 0.19, p < 0.001) but the trajectories were diverse (latent-slope variance = 0.06, p < 0.001). Greater health literacy (0-5 points: worse-best scaling), which was measured with a validated scale, was associated with better overall health only among White women and men. Notably, White women received the baseline health benefits (b = -0.20, p < 0.05) from health literacy whereas Black women (b = 0.09, p > 0.05) did not [Δb = 0.09 -(-0.20) = 0.29, p < 0.05]. Other detailed comparisons, theoretical explanations, and public health policy implications for diverse older populations were evaluated.

Download Full-text

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Home-Care Use Across Regional Long-term Care Systems in Europe

The Journals of Gerontology Series B ◽

10.1093/geronb/gbaa139 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 76 (1) ◽

pp. 121-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ginevra Floridi ◽

Ludovico Carrino ◽

Karen Glaser

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Home Care ◽

Fixed Effects ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Multilevel Models ◽

Later Life ◽

Socioeconomic Inequalities ◽

Term Care ◽

Individual Level

Abstract Objectives We examine whether socioeconomic inequalities in home-care use among disabled older adults are related to the contextual characteristics of long-term care (LTC) systems. Specifically, we investigate how wealth and income gradients in the use of informal, formal, and mixed home-care vary according to the degree to which LTC systems offer alternatives to families as the main providers of care (“de-familization”). Method We use survey data from SHARE on disabled older adults from 136 administrative regions in 12 European countries and link them to a regional indicator of de-familization in LTC, measured by the number of available LTC beds in care homes. We use multinomial multilevel models, with and without country fixed-effects, to study home-care use as a function of individual-level and regional-level LTC characteristics. We interact financial wealth and income with the number of LTC beds to assess whether socioeconomic gradients in home-care use differ across regions according to the degree of de-familization in LTC. Results We find robust evidence that socioeconomic status inequalities in the use of mixed-care are lower in more de-familized LTC systems. Poorer people are more likely than the wealthier to combine informal and formal home-care use in regions with more LTC beds. SES inequalities in the exclusive use of informal or formal care do not differ by the level of de-familization. Discussion The results suggest that de-familization in LTC favors the combination of formal and informal home-care among the more socioeconomically disadvantaged, potentially mitigating health inequalities in later life.

Download Full-text

Transitioning to long-term care for older adults with intellectual disabilities: A concept analysis

Journal of Intellectual Disabilities ◽

10.1177/17446295211041839 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174462952110418

Author(s):

Caroline Egan ◽

Helen Mulcahy ◽

Corina Naughton

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Intellectual Disability ◽

Intellectual Disabilities ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Later Life ◽

Concept Analysis ◽

Older Person ◽

Term Care ◽

Adults With Intellectual Disabilities

Aim: To undertake a concept analysis of transitioning to long-term care for older adults with intellectual disabilities. Background: Individuals with an intellectual disability are experiencing increased longevity which is associated with an increase in transitions in later life to long-term care. Their experience of later life transitions is likely to be different to the general older population. Methodology: Concept Analysis was undertaken using the Walker and Avant framework. Results: Eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Defining attributes are an older person with intellectual disability; a planned relocation to a long-term care facility; person-centred; and supported decision-making. Conclusion: There is a dearth of empirical evidence and theorisation on this concept. Transitions of this nature have been inadequately informed by the perspective of the older person with an intellectual disability, and future research and practice requires greater efforts to include their voice.

Download Full-text

Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparities Among Older Adults in Long-Term Care Facilities

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.089 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 27-28

Author(s):

Kathy Lee ◽

Rebecca Mauldin ◽

John Connolly ◽

Weizhou Tang

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Older Adults ◽

Racial Differences ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Ethnic Disparities ◽

Term Care ◽

Resident Care ◽

Race Ethnicity

Abstract Background: Nearly half-million older adults from minority racial and ethnic groups in long term care face disparities in quality of life and quality of care. However, there is little information about the associations between a resident’s race/ethnicity and the types of official complaints lodged. Methods: This project was a mixed methods study using a sequential explanatory design to examine ethnic and racial differences in types of complaints and rates of complaint resolution in a local Ombudsman Program. First, resident race/ethnicity and complaint data were collected from the Ombudsman Program and analyzed. Then, we conducted focus groups with Ombudsman Program staff and volunteers to provide a more complete interpretation of findings from the first phase. Results: Residents from ethnic/racial minority groups were less likely to generate Resident Care complaints and more likely to generate Resident Rights complaints, compared to non-Hispanic White residents (p<.05). Resident Rights, Quality of Life, and Administrative complaints were less likely to be disposed satisfactorily, compared to Resident Care complaints (p<.05). Themes emerged from our qualitative findings include language barriers and more efforts required for residents’ rights due to concerns raised more frequently among minority residents. Implications: Cultural competence training for Ombudsmen as well as care professionals should focus on skills and knowledge that value diversity, understand and respond to their unique concerns. Ombudsmen play an important role as they create an avenue for the residents to discuss their concerns. Implementation research may improve our understanding of the development and delivery of the Ombudsman Program.

Download Full-text