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This book delivers timely research on the various interfaces of family and work, and their impacts on individual wellbeing in East and Southeast Asia. It highlights changing family structures and processes, with special attention to inter-generational relationships, gender roles, cultural norms and employment. The book presents both qualitative and quantitative research works, adopting a comparative approach to analyze a number of demographics. In-depth field studies are also included, which present in detail the daily efforts of certain populations to attain better living standards by mobilizing available resources from within and outside the family. As such, the book is a valuable addition to contemporary research perspectives on family, work and living conditions in Asia.

This study proposes a new hybrid MADM model that can explore the best strategy plan according to the environmental attributes that influence digital convergence, with the additional consideration of societal and individual needs for improving the digital convergence toward satisficing users' needs. The proposed hybrid MADM model employs the DEMATEL method to construct an influential network relationship map (INRM), and find the influential weights of DANP (DEMATEL-based ANP). Next, a modified VIKOR method is employed to assess the weighting of identified attributes to integrate the performance gap for each criterion into dimensions and the overall. Finally, this paper presents Taiwan as an empirical case to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in practically improving laws and regulations to plan for digital convergence. The contributions of our proposed model can be summarized as follows: (1) The INRM can be used to assist government bodies in understanding the influence and relationships of digital convergence development; (2) The modified VIKOR can be employed to reduce performance-gap towards achieving the aspiration level; (3) The model can help decision-makers to avoid choosing the optimal inferior alternative for reaching a certain aspiration level through continuous improvement. First published online 9January 2017

This study proposes a new hybrid MADM model that can explore the best strategy plan according to the environmental attributes that influence digital convergence, with the additional consideration of societal and individual needs for improving the digital convergence toward satisficing users' needs. The proposed hybrid MADM model employs the DEMATEL method to construct an influential network relationship map (INRM), and find the influential weights of DANP (DEMATEL-based ANP). Next, a modified VIKOR method is employed to assess the weighting of identified attributes to integrate the performance gap for each criterion into dimensions and the overall. Finally, this paper presents Taiwan as an empirical case to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in practically improving laws and regulations to plan for digital convergence. The contributions of our proposed model can be summarized as follows: (1) The INRM can be used to assist government bodies in understanding the influence and relationships of digital convergence development; (2) The modified VIKOR can be employed to reduce performance-gap towards achieving the aspiration level; (3) The model can help decision-makers to avoid choosing the optimal inferior alternative for reaching a certain aspiration level through continuous improvement. First published online 9January 2017

This study aimed to compare the prevalence of frailty across three Chinese populations: Hong Kong, Taiwan-urban and Taiwan-rural. Contributing factors to disparities in frailty were also examined. Data were derived from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOs) and Women (MsOs) (Hong Kong) Study (n = 4000) and the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (n = 2392). Frailty was defined as an index calculated from 30 multiple deficits. The ratio of the frailty index to life expectancy at birth (FI/LE) was used as an indicator of compression of morbidity. Frailty was more prevalent in Taiwan-urban (33.1%) and Taiwan-rural (38.1%) compared to Hong Kong (16.6%, p < 0.05) and was higher in women (22.6–49.7%) than in men (10.5–27.5%, p < 0.05). The ratios of FI/LE were higher in Taiwan-urban and Taiwan-rural (both 0.27) compared to Hong Kong (0.20, p < 0.05). Multivariate analyses revealed that older age, being a woman and low levels of physical activity were common risk factors for frailty across the three populations. Alcohol use was inversely associated with frailty in both Hong Kong and Taiwan-urban populations, but not in Taiwan-rural. Living alone was associated with frailty in Hong Kong men, but not in Hong Kong women or Taiwanese people. For all study populations, older age and being a woman constituted the highest attributable factor. This comparison provides useful data to inform government policies.