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Socio-psychological well-being, drug use and health among the elderly Chinese in Toronto
Author(s)
Date Issued
1990
Citation
Cheung, Y. W., & Leonard, C. (1990). Socio-psychological well-being, drug use and health among the elderly Chinese in Toronto. In Chinese Canadian Medical Society (Ed.). Conference proceedings of fifth conference on health care of the Chinese in north America. The 5th Conference on Health Problems Related to the Chinese in North America, Toronto, Canada (pp. 34).
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Based on data from the Chinese subsample of a 1987 study of alcohol and drug use among 349
elderly subjects in Toronto, this paper examines the physical health of the Chinese elderly (N=51) and
its socio-pjychological corielates. bocio-psychological correlates included the following scales: (i) social
support (Gwton, e1 al, 1982), (ii) social activities (creecy, et al, 1985), (iii) negattue life-events
lOoirrendwend, et al, igZA),'(iu) subjective well-being (Liang, 1985), (v) personal control (Llnn and Linn,
iSenl anO (vi) ioneliness (Creecy, ef al, 1985). A "drug use" scale (use of alcoholand tobacco, and non'
medical usi of prescription drugs) was employed as an intervening variable between the sociopsychological variables and health.
The results show that, on the whole, physical health of the Chinese elderly was associated with
the socio-psychological variables but not with drug use. Among the Chinese elderly, the level oldlg
use was low-and diug use was not a means of coping with the lack of social and psychological wellbeing.
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