Health, Loneliness and the Ageing Process in the Absence of Cardinal Measure : Rendering Intangibles Tangible

Multilateral and multidimensional comparison of a group’s subjective well-being is problematic when its responses are ordinal and cardinally intangible. Arbitrary attribution of cardinal measure to ordinal categories engenders ambiguity when alternative equally valid scales are contemplated because of scale and weighting dependency issues. However much can be said without resort to such scales. Here scale independent methods, particularly useful in multilateral, multidimensional treatment effects analysis with ordered outcomes for measurement and comparison of treatment group wellness are proposed and exemplified. This study of poor health-loneliness and aging relationships in China reveals poor health and loneliness increase with age, though not monotonically. Improved health is always associated with less loneliness, and reduced loneliness is always associated with better health outcomes. Males enjoy better joint health-loneliness outcomes than females in almost every comparison, and urban dwellers enjoy better joint outcomes than their rural counterparts.Funding Information: None. Declaration of Interests: None