BackgroundThe 20th century’s rapid industrialization and urbanization brought important social changes to Taiwan, including an increased number of elders living alone, which has increased risk of depression for the elderly. This study aimed to evaluate the changing pattern regarding the effect of intergenerational exchanges on elders’ depressive symptoms from 1993 to 2007.MethodsData from the second-, fourth- and sixth-wave surveys of the Study of Health and Living Status of the Middle-Aged and Elderly in Taiwan were analyzed. This study collected elders’ individual sociodemographic characteristics, their self-reported health status and their intergenerational exchanges, including living with partners or with their children and their provision of care for their grandchildren. Information about elders’ depression was evaluated using the 5-item Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).Changes in elders’ intergenerational exchanges and depressive symptoms were compared during these study periods (chi-square test). Then, logistic regression was performed to determine how significantly elders’ intergenerational exchanges were associated with their depressive symptoms across the three years 1993, 1999 and 2007.ResultsThe prevalence of elders living with partners decreased from 1993 to 2007 by 19%, and that of living with their children decreased from 1993 to 2007 by 7%. Conversely, the percentage of elders providing care for grandchildren dramatically increased, from 9% in 1993 to 21% in 2007. Elderly people had significantly fewer depressive symptoms in 2007 than in 1993.After adjusting for confounders, those living without a partner, living without children or providing no grandchild care had a greater risk of feeling lonely and being depressed. However, during the period 1993 to 2007, the impact on elders’ depression and loneliness of co-residing with a partner or with children decreased at the same time that the impact of their provision of grandchild care increased. In 2007, elders who provided no grandchild care were significantly more likely to feel lonely and sad as well as to have high CES-D scores; these strong associations were not found in 1993 and 1999.ConclusionsThis study illustrates how taking care of grandchildren protects against depression and loneliness in elderly Taiwanese. We argue the need, in an aging society, for improving intergenerational interaction and recommend careful evaluation of the interaction between population policies and those of social welfare, such as child care.

The aim of this study was to explore the associations between burnout and occupational stress measured by demand-control support (DCS) and effort-reward imbalance (ERI) models among lawyers. Methods: This crosssectional study included 180 lawyers from 26 law firms in the Taipei Bar. The Chinese version of Karasek's job content questionnaire (C-JCQ) and the Chinese version of Siegrist's ERI questionnaire (C-ERI) were used to measure occupational stress, and the Chinese version of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (C-CBI) questionnaire was used to measure personal, workrelated and client-related burnout. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the associations between burnout and lawyers' occupational stress and job specialty adjusting for age, gender, marital status, work experience, working hours per day, firm size and the significant occupational stress of each model for the other. Results: Lawyers reported relatively higher scores in job control, psychological demands and effort, and high prevalence of self-perceived work stress. Litigious lawyers had higher decision authority and workplace social support, higher work-related burnout and higher client-related burnout than non-litigious lawyers. Personal burnout and work-related burnout were associated with high psychological demands, effort, and effort-reward ratio. Conclusions: High occupational stress was associated with high levels of personal and work-related burnout among lawyers. (J Occup Health 2009; 51: 443-450)

In general, occupational stress was associated with personal and work-related burnout for both judges and prosecutors. Client-related burnout was more common for judicial officers with low social support and the judges.

This study aims to evaluate acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines and the impact of risk perception on vaccine acceptance and personal health protective behaviors in Taiwan. A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted from 19 to 30 October 2020; 1020 participants were included in the final analysis; chi-square and logistic regression analyses were conducted. In total, 52.7% of participants were willing to receive COVID-19 vaccines, 63.5% perceived the severity of COVID-19 in Taiwan as “not serious”, and nearly 40% were worried about COVID-19 infection. Participants with higher perceived severity of COVID-19 had significantly higher odds of refusing the vaccine (OR = 1.546), while those worried about infection had lower odds of poor health protective behaviors (OR = 0.685). Vaccine refusal reasons included “the EUA process is not strict enough” (48.7%) and “side effects” (30.3%). Those who had previously refused other vaccinations were 2.44 times more likely to refuse the COVID-19 vaccines. Participants’ age had an influence on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. In general, the Taiwanese public’s acceptance of the vaccine was lower than that in other high-income countries. Elderly participants and those with college-level education and above who had previously refused vaccines had lower willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Risk perception was positively associated with personal health protective behaviors but negatively associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

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