Framing Later Life Vulnerability during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Coverage in Canada and the United States.

This study explores vulnerability narratives used in relation to older adults and others during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed-method content analysis was conducted of 391 articles published in two major newspapers in Canada and the USA during the first wave of the pandemic. The findings indicated that during the early months of the pandemic, limited attention was directed towards its impact on older adults or other 'vulnerable' subpopulations in both countries.

Mental Health Benefits and Detriments of Caregiving Demands: A Nonlinear Association in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Objectives: This study examines whether the association between caregiving demands and mental health is non-linear and also, whether this non-linear association is contingent on the marital status of the caregiver.

Methods: We analyze the data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, applying OLS regression and quadratic interaction terms.

Results: A lower level of demands is salubriously associated with symptoms of depression and life satisfaction, but this association becomes deleterious at higher levels of demands.

Internal Migration and the Health of Middle-Aged and Older Persons in China: The Healthy Migrant Effect Reconsidered.

This study investigates associations between internal migration and health among middle-aged and older adults in China, including variations associated with type of migration (rural-to-urban, urban-to-rural, rural-to-rural, urban-to-urban). Data were drawn from China's Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011, 2013, 2015). Lagged panel and fixed-effect regression models address associations between migration and health outcomes (self-rated health, depression) while controlling for pre-migration and post-migration selection effects.

Social Determinants of Racial Disparities in Cognitive Functioning in Later Life in Canada.

The objectives of this study were (a) to assess the nature and extent of racial disparities in cognitive functioning among older adults in Canada, and (b) to assess the role of socioeconomic factors and patterned health behaviors as social determinants of racial disparities in cognitive functioning. Data were drawn from the 2009-2010 Canadian Community Health Survey. The study sample included 20,646 people aged 60 years or older.

Marital and Cohabiting Union Dissolution in Middle and Later Life.

This study examined the timing and risk factors for subsequent union disruption among individuals who were in a marital or cohabiting union at age 45, focusing particularly on the role of prior union history and children. Using retrospective data on union histories from the 2007 Canadian General Social Survey ( n = 17,194), the results of life-table analysis revealed that individuals in cohabiting relationships faced a greater risk of union disruption in middle or later life than those who were married. Cox proportional hazard models showed that both union biography (duration, remarriage/repartnership) and family biography (children born inside/outside union, child age) influenced union dissolution through separation or divorce, but their impact differed depending on union type and gender.

Long-Term Care Service Trajectories and Their Predictors for Persons Living With Dementia: Results From a Canadian Study.

Objective: We used latent transition analysis to explore common long-term care (LTC) service trajectories and their predictors for older adults with dementia.

Method: Using linked administrative data collected over a 4-year interval (2008-2011), the study sample included 3,541 older persons with dementia who were clients of publicly funded LTC in British Columbia, Canada.

Results: Our results revealed relatively equal reliance on home care (HC) and facility-based residential care (RC) as starting points.

Janus at the Crossroads: Perspectives on Long-term Care Trajectories for Older Women With Dementia in a Canadian Context.

Purpose Of The Study: Janus, the two-faced, Roman god of beginnings and transitions, is used as a metaphor to explore our personal narratives and our quantitative research on the experiences of older women with dementia in long-term care (LTC). Two research questions are addressed: (a) How do our quantitative data map onto our mothers' experiences? (b) What lessons do our mothers' experiences offer for the care of older women with dementia?

Design And Methods: Informed by a life-course perspective, we triangulate administrative data on 3,717 women with dementia receiving LTC in British Columbia, Canada, with personal narratives-the stories of our mothers who made the transition from home care into residential (nursing home) care.

Results: Our quantitative data reveal that the home care to residential care transition is the most common LTC trajectory for women with dementia who are most likely to be widowed and living alone in suburban areas.

Long-term Care Trajectories in Canadian Context: Patterns and Predictors of Publicly Funded Care.

Objectives: Drawing on a structural life course perspective (LCP), we examined the most common trajectories experienced by older long-term care (LTC; home and community-based care, assisted living, and nursing home care) recipients. The overall sequencing of care transitions was considered along with the role of social structural location, social and economic resources, and health factors in influencing them.

Method: Latent class and latent transition analyses were conducted using administrative data obtained over a 4-year period for clients aged 65 and older (n = 2,951) admitted into publicly funded LTC in 1 Canadian health region.

Income Inequities in Health Care Utilization among Adults Aged 50 and Older.

Equitable access to and utilization of health services is a primary goal for many health care systems, particularly in countries with universal publicly funded systems. Despite concerns regarding potentially adverse implications of the 1990s' health care policy and other reforms, whether and how income inequalities in service utilization changed remains unclear. This study addressed the impact of income on physician and hospital utilization from 1992-2002 among adults aged 50 and older in British Columbia.

Caregiver Stress and Mental Health: Impact of Caregiving Relationship and Gender.

Purpose Of The Study: This study compared the stress and mental health implications of caregiving to a spouse, children, siblings, other family members, friends, and others among middle-aged and older male and female caregivers.

Design And Methods: Multivariate regression analyses were conducted using 2007 Canadian General Social Survey data collected on a subsample of caregivers aged 45 and older.

Results: Our analyses revealed that for women, caring for a spouse or children was more stressful and detrimental to mental health than caring for parents or others.

Relocation and Social Support Among Older Adults in Rural China.

Objectives: China's economic reforms have led to millions of citizens being relocated to support infrastructure development, reduce poverty, and address ecological, disaster-related and other concerns. This study expands on previous research on the implications of relocation in China by examining the impact of rural elders' relocation on the perceived availability of emotional, instrumental, and financial support.

Methods: Data were drawn from the Ankang Study of Aging and Health conducted with a representative sample of 1,062 rural residents aged 60 and over living in Ankang, China.

Marital status, childlessness, and social support among older Canadians.

Despite evidence of increasing diversification of family structures, little is known regarding implications of marital and parental status for access to social support in later life. Using data from Statistics Canada's 2007 General Social Survey, this study assessed the impact of marital and parental status intersections on social support among adults aged 60 and older (n = 11,503). Two-stage probit regression models indicated that among those who were currently married or separated/divorced, childless individuals were more likely to report instrumental (domestic, transportation) and emotional support from people outside the household.

Polypharmacy meets polyherbacy: pharmaceutical, over-the-counter, and natural health product use among Canadian adults.

Objectives: Natural health products (NHP) are increasingly being used to supplement prescription medications (PM) and over-the-counter (OTC) products. The objective of this study was to examine patterns of overall health product use and how these patterns are associated with social and health factors.

Methods: We used direct health measures data from the Canada Health Measures Survey (CHMS) Cycle 1.

Trends and predictors of publicly subsidized chiropractic service use among adults age 50+.

Objectives: This article examines trends in and predictors of publicly subsidized chiropractic use from 1991 to 2000, a decade characterized by health care system reforms throughout North America.

Sample: The sample included adults age 50+ who visited a publicly subsidized chiropractor in the Canadian province of British Columbia during the study period.

Design: Administrative claims data for chiropractic service use were drawn from the Medical Services Plan (MSP) Master file in the British Columbia Linked Health Data resource.

Gender and remission of mental illness.

Objectives: There is a well-established association between gender and the prevalence of mental illness. The objective of this study was to determine whether gender also influences the timing of remission from illness. The regression analysis undertaken considered remission in terms of all ICD-9 mental disorders (codes 290-314).

Home care and health reform: changes in home care utilization in one Canadian province, 1990-2000.

Purpose: This study examines population-based trends in home care service utilization, alone and in conjunction with hospitalizations, during a period of health reform in Canada. It focuses on the extent to which observed trends suggest enhanced community-based care relative to three competing hypotheses: cost-cutting, medicalization, and profitization.

Design And Methods: Analyses drew on administrative health data from the province of British Columbia for the period from 1990 through 2000.

In the absence of cancer registry data, is it sensible to assess incidence using hospital separation records?

Background: Within the health literature, a major goal is to understand distribution of service utilisation by social location. Given equivalent access, differential incidence leads to an expectation of differential service utilisation. Cancer incidence is differentially distributed with respect to socioeconomic status.

The devil is in the details: trends in avoidable hospitalization rates by geography in British Columbia, 1990-2000.

Background: Researchers and policy makers have focussed on the development of indicators to help monitor the success of regionalization, primary care reform and other health sector restructuring initiatives. Certain indicators are useful in examining issues of equity in service provision, especially among older populations, regardless of where they live. AHRs are used as an indicator of primary care system efficiency and thus reveal information about access to general practitioners.

Immigrant status and unmet health care needs.

Objectives: To compare whether unmet health needs differ between immigrants and non-immigrants, and examine whether help-seeking characteristics account for any unmet needs disparities.

Methods: The data are from the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.1, conducted by Statistics Canada in 2000-2001.

Hydra revisited: substituting formal for self- and informal in-home care among older adults with disabilities.

Purpose: In response to concerns among policymakers and others that increases in the availability of publicly funded formal services will lead to reductions in self- and informal care, this study examines the relationship between the extent of formal in-home care received and levels of self- and informal care.

Design And Methods: Two-stage least squares regression analyses were conducted, using data drawn from interviews conducted with a sample of 661 older users and nonusers of publicly subsidized home care services.

Results: No evidence was found to indicate that more extensive use of formal services is associated with less extensive self- or informal care.