Herbert C. Northcott

RELIGION AND DIFFERENCES IN MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY

Religion and its effects on morbidity and mortality (with particular emphasis on mortality) are reviewed as are special issues which have in the past made the study of religion and death difficult. The morbidity and mortality experience of various religious groups is portrayed, including Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, the clergy, Seventh-day Adventists, Latter-day Saints, Parsis, Jehovahs Witnesses and Hutterites. Studies of religious effects on morbidity and mortality have broadened in focus from the study of specific health practices, or health-related behaviors, to include the study of social support, religious participation and health-related attitudes. Gaps in the literature are identified and a preliminary model of religions effect on morbidity and mortality is discussed.

The Impact of Working Conditions, Social Roles, and Personal Characteristics on Gender Differences in Distress.

This article analyzes gender differences in employee distress. Work stress has been studied differently for males and females. For males, the predominant focus has been on job conditions; for employed women, the focus has usually been on the multiple demands of domestic and work roles. In this analysis, we combine both approaches, examining the effects of working conditions, nonwork roles, and personal characteristics on self-reports of depression, irritability, and psychophysiological symptoms. Our study population consists of 992 Canadian postal workers, about half of whom are female. We find that males and females respond similarly to stressful jobs, although women tend to report slightly higher levels of distress. Regression analysis reveals that, while gender does exert a small but significant net effect, perceived job characteristics—especially receiving competing demands and the degree of variety and challenge—are the best predictors of distress. Nonwork social roles have no significant effect on distress.

Redefining Parental Identity: Caregiving and Schizophrenia:

When parents try to assume responsibility for an ill adult-child with schizophrenia, the law, mental health practitioners, and often the ill person reject their right to do so. Consequently, these parents regard themselves as disenfranchised, i.e., lacking the rights required to care properly for their loved ones. Redefining Parental Identity, a grounded theory of caregiving and schizophrenia, traces changes in a parent’s identity and caregiving during the erratic course of the child’s mental illness. Participants were a purposive sample of 29 parent caregivers from 19 families in British Columbia, Canada, caring for 20 adult children. This understanding of their experience will be helpful to parents of people with schizophrenia, professional practitioners, and those involved in mental health care reform.

Location of death in Canada. A comparison of 20th-century hospital and nonhospital locations of death and corresponding population trends.

This report compares 20th-century Canadian hospital and nonhospital location-of-death trends and corresponding population mortality trends. One of the chief findings is a hospitalization-of-death trend, with deaths in hospital peaking in 1994 at 80.5% of all deaths. The rise in hospitalization was more pronounced in the years prior to the development of a national health care program (1966). Another key finding is a gradual reduction since 1994 in hospital deaths, with this reduction occurring across all sociodemographic variables. This suggests nonhospital care options are needed to support what may be an ongoing shift away from hospitalized death and dying.

Subjective evaluation of well-being: Problems and prospects

This paper discusses some of the substantive and methodological pitfalls that arise in the subjective evaluation of well-being. The discussion includes illustrative references to the empirical findings of the 1977 Edmonton Area Study. Issues discussed include (1) specific, domain, and global measures; (2) objective states and subjective perceptions; (3) micro and macro units of analysis; and (4) the problem of cultural relativism. It is concluded that it is not yet possible to delineate a simple set of social indicators for use by policy-makers and social planners. Accurate assessment of social well-being currently requires the study of demographic and objective states together with cognitive and evaluational responses and also requires assessment not only at the global ‘general satisfaction’ level but also at more specific levels of analysis.

Concurrent utilization of chiropractic, prescription medicines, nonprescription medicines and alternative health care

This study examines the use of chiropractic, prescription medicines, nonprescription medicines and alternative health care for two independent samples representative of the population of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1979 (n = 439) and again in 1988 (n = 464). While the usage of prescription medicines was unchanged from 1979 to 1988, utilization of nonprescription medicines, chiropractic and alternative health care increased. Users of chiropractic tended to be concurrent users of the conventional health care system, although they were also more likely to utilize alternative health care. This study shows that Edmontonians tend to select their health care concurrently from various health care modalities including both prescription and nonprescription medicines and conventional and alternative health care.

Population Aging, Human Capital Accumulation, and Productivity Growth

A major consequence of the persisting low birth rates and still-rising longevity experienced in many European and some Asian countries is an aging workforce. How serious a concern should this be for the course of economic growth? In particular, what effect does it have on labor productivity, as measured by output per worker? And what does the experience thus far in adapting to an older workforce suggest for future labor market and human capital policies in a fast-aging world? Economic theory provides no simple answers to these questions. Older workers tend to be more experienced and perhaps more competent managers; younger workers may be better educated, healthier, and more energetic and intellectually agile. Labor market institutions and practices may promote or impede substitutability among workers of differing ages. Indirect demographic effects on productivity also exist, working through capital and product markets, schooling quality, and the pace of innovation. Age-productivity profiles at the level of the individual, firm, and country can be markedly different. The contributions to this volume help define the state of this difficult but important area of economic demography. The studies included cover the broad economic significance of global population aging; historical evidence of the effects of human capital accumulation; age variation in production and consumption; methods of population projection by educational attainment; sensitivity analysis of productivity projections with respect to modeling assumptions such as inter-age substitutability and form of production function; and country case studies of age-productivity relationships (Austria, Japan, Sweden). Empirical materials drawn on range from the individual to the macro-economy.

The Geographic Mobility of Elderly Canadians

La monographie Changing Residence: The Geographic Mobility of Elderly Canadians (Northcott, 1988) a examiné les travaux de recherche qui avaient été fait vers le milieu des années mi-1980 sur la mobilité géographique des personnes âgées au Canada et ailleurs. Le but de cet article est de fournir une mise à jour et une vue d’ensemble des développements dans l’étude de la mobilité géographique des personnes âgées, depuis le milieu des années 1980, avec un accent particulier sur le Canada. Dans cette revue, tout d’abord nous examinons le progrès au cours des derniers 25 ans dans la recherche sur la mobilité géographique des personnes âgées et se concentrons sur trois thèmes: le deplacement et la concentration géographique des personnes âgées, la migration saisonnière « retraités migrateurs » et les migrations internationales. Deuxièmement, nous évaluons l’état actuel de la recherche sur la migration des personnes âgées au Canada. Enfin, nous identifions les défis futurs et des questions sans réponses et offrons des suggestions pour la recherche du futur. The monograph Changing Residence: The Geographic Mobility of Elderly Canadians (Northcott, 1988) reviewed the research that had been done up to the mid-1980s on the geographic mobility of older persons in Canada and elsewhere. The purpose of this article is to provide an update and overview of developments in the study of the geographic mobility of seniors since the mid-1980s with a particular emphasis on Canada. In this review, we first examine progress over the past 25 years in research about seniors’ geographic mobility and focus on three topics: the relocation and geographic concentration of seniors, seasonal migration (“snowbirds”), and international migration. Second, we assess the current status of research on elder migration in Canada. Finally, we identify future challenges and unanswered questions, and make suggestions for future research.

Housing and Living Arrangements of South Asian Immigrant Seniors in Edmonton, Alberta

The Canadian population is aging and becoming more ethnically diverse. This paper focuses on South Asian immigrant seniors and examines differences in housing and living arrangements among seniors who immigrated at different life stages. We interviewed a convenience sample of 161 immigrant seniors of South Asian descent in Edmonton, Alberta, to assess type of living arrangement, type of housing and dwelling density (measured in persons per room), activity in the neighbourhood, and means of transportation. Overall, those seniors who came to Canada before the end of mid-life were more likely than those who came at an older age to drive a car and, if married, to live in a one- or two-generation family. Women were more likely than men to be widowed, have poorer English-language skills, or live with a three-generation family if unmarried, and less likely to drive a car. Most respondents were satisfied with their living arrangements, housing, and perceived safety at home and in their neighbourhood. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Women, Work, and Health

This article examines the impact of employment on male and female reports of psychosomatic symptoms, controlling for the contingent factors of age of youngest child, the respondents age, and marital status. These variables failed to predict substantial differences in psychophysiological distress levels. Further, the findings fail to support the argument that married women who work-especially when they have childrenwill suffer psychophysiologically as a consequence of the work overload and role conflict thought to be inherent in their dual role.