Ageing in place together : older parents and ageing offspring with intellectual disability

Abstract

Limited research has been conducted about ageing in place among older parents whoco-habit with their ageing offspring with intellectual disability (ID). This study aims toexplore which older parents would choose ageing in place together with their ageingoffspring with ID instead of moving and what factors are associated with this choice.A face-to-face interview was conducted using the‘housing pathways’framework witholder parents (⩾60 years) co-habiting with their ageing offspring with ID (⩾40 years)from two local authorities in Taiwan. In total, 237 families completed our census surveybetween June and September 2015. The results showed that 61.6 per cent of the partici-pants would choose ageing in place with their ageing offspring with ID, while 38.4 percent of the participants would stay in their previous place without their disabled children,move in with their other children or move to a nursing home. Logistic regression analysesrevealed that parents who preferred ageing in place together with their offspring with IDwere more likely to own a house (‘personal control’), have higher levels of life satisfaction(‘self-esteem’) and satisfaction with their current community (‘self-identity’), and have alower level of social support than parents who chose another option. To meet theneeds of older parents and their ageing offspring with ID, care and housing transitionsshould be considered as part of long-term care policy.