Interaction of widowhood, gender, and age in predicting loneliness among older adults in China

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics for Variables in Baseline (N = 22777).

Variables		Frequency	Percent
Gender	Male	9984	43.83
	Female	12793	56.17
Age Group	60-74 years old	4915	21.58
	75-84 years old	4604	20.21
	85-94 years old	7369	32.35
	95-104 years old	5889	25.86
Residence	City	4205	18.46
	Town	4558	20.01
	Rural	14014	61.53
Years of Education	0 years	14196	62.33
	1-5 years	5209	22.87
	6-9 years	2341	10.28
	Over 10 years	1031	4.53
Family Economic Status	Low	3571	15.68
	Medium	15468	67.91
	High	3738	16.41
Timely Treatment	No	2129	9.35
	Yes	20648	90.65
Cognitive Function	Normal	14773	64.86
	Mild Impaired	4152	18.23
	Moderate Impaired	2628	11.54
	Severe Impaired	1224	5.37
ADL	No Disability	17935	78.74
	Disability	4842	21.26
IADL	No Disability	7678	33.71
	Mild Disability	5309	23.31
	Moderate Disability	4309	18.92
	Severe Disability	5481	24.06
Number of Chronic Diseases	No	9099	39.95
	1	7355	32.29
	2	3664	16.09
	3 and above	2659	11.67
Smoking	No	18425	80.89
	Yes	4352	19.11
Drinking	No	18144	79.66
	Yes	4633	20.34
Living Arrangements	Live without Children	8452	37.11
	Live with Children	14325	62.89
Marital Status	Married	7844	34.44
	Widowhood	14933	65.56
Loneliness	Never	8209	36.04
	Rarely	7186	31.55
	Sometimes	5602	24.60
	Often	1780	7.82

Table 2. Multilevel ordered logit models for the effects of widowhood on loneliness.

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4
Female	−0.108***	−0.037	0.005	−0.005
	(0.025)	(0.038)	(0.039)	(0.041)
Age	−0.012***	−0.012***	−0.001	−0.001
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.002)
Town	0.479***	0.479***	0.480***	0.479***
	(0.031)	(0.031)	(0.031)	(0.031)
Rural	0.540***	0.539***	0.545***	0.542***
	(0.028)	(0.028)	(0.028)	(0.028)
1–5 years of education	−0.051	−0.054*	−0.057*	−0.057*
	(0.027)	(0.027)	(0.027)	(0.027)
6–9 years of education	−0.126***	−0.124***	−0.109**	−0.111**
	(0.036)	(0.036)	(0.036)	(0.036)
Over 10 years of education	−0.203***	−0.200***	−0.183***	−0.184***
	(0.053)	(0.053)	(0.053)	(0.053)
Medium Family Economic Status	−0.609***	−0.610***	−0.604***	−0.604***
	(0.029)	(0.029)	(0.029)	(0.029)
High Family Economic Status	−0.913***	−0.916***	−0.910***	−0.910***
	(0.036)	(0.036)	(0.036)	(0.036)
Timely Treatment	−0.562***	−0.562***	−0.565***	−0.564***
	(0.037)	(0.037)	(0.037)	(0.037)
Health Index	−0.012***	−0.012***	−0.012***	−0.012***
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Smoking	−0.086**	−0.083**	−0.077**	−0.082**
	(0.028)	(0.028)	(0.028)	(0.028)
Drinking	−0.175***	−0.173***	−0.165***	−0.166***
	(0.026)	(0.026)	(0.026)	(0.026)
Live with Children	−0.412***	−0.411***	−0.399***	−0.399***
	(0.022)	(0.022)	(0.022)	(0.022)
Widowhood	1.058***	1.105***	1.135***	1.186***
	(0.026)	(0.033)	(0.033)	(0.037)
Widowhood × Female		−0.109*	−0.144**	−0.208***
		(0.044)	(0.044)	(0.052)
Windowhood × Age			−0.016***	−0.023***
			(0.002)	(0.003)
Female × Age				−0.002
				(0.004)
Windowhood × Female × Age				0.011*
				(0.005)
Var(cons)	0.375***	0.373***	0.374***	0.373***
	(0.027)	(0.027)	(0.027)	(0.027)
Log likelihood	−53980.081	−53976.995	−53951.720	−53947.314
Degree of Freedom	15	16	17	19
Observations	45,139	45,139	45,139	45,139
Number of groups	22,777	22,777	22,777	22,777

Notes. Standard errors in parentheses; ***p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05.

Figure 1. The probability of frequent loneliness in the elderly with different genders, ages, and marital status.

Table 3. Multilevel ordered logit models for the effects of widowhood on loneliness among the elderly widowed during the survey period.

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4
Widowhood	1.092***	1.107***	1.209***	1.202***
	(0.052)	(0.072)	(0.076)	(0.081)
Widowhood × Female		−0.031	−0.128	−0.125
		(0.100)	(0.103)	(0.108)
Windowhood × Age			−0.025***	−0.022**
			(0.006)	(0.009)
Female × Age				0.002
				(0.004)
Windowhood × Female × Age				−0.006
				(0.012)
Var(_cons[id])	0.318***	0.318***	0.316***	0.316***
	(0.035)	(0.035)	(0.035)	(0.035)
Log likelihood	−21591.544	−21591.379	−21580.050	−21579.414
Degree of Freedom	15	16	17	19
Observations	19,553	19,553	19,553	19,553
Number of groups	7,788	7,788	7,788	7,788

Notes. Standard errors in parentheses; *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05; Due to space limitations, estimates of control variables are not given.

Figure 2. The probability of frequent loneliness among the elderly widowed during the survey period.

Data availability statement

The data used in this study come from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), which is publicly available to researchers upon request. The CLHLS data access policy follows the Taylor & Francis share upon reasonable request principle. Researchers can obtain free access to the data by formal registration. Researchers who wish to access the CLHLS data files should submit a data usage agreement to the CLHLS team. More details about the data access application process can be found at [https://opendata.pku.edu.cn/dataverse/CHADS;jsessionid=943424e8b1b49c937c14468d19c8#]. The authors confirm they were granted access to the data used in this study by completing the CLHLS data usage agreement, which outlines ethical use of the data. The authors are unable to directly share the CLHLS data used, but interested researchers can apply to access the data via the contact details provided on the website The computer code used to generate results presented in this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.