Alexithymia Subgroups in Chinese Empty-Nesters with Multiple Chronic Diseases

561 empty-nest older adults with at least two chronic conditions were recruited from six cities in Jiangsu Province, China between November 2022 and March 2024. The study, authored by Bin Shang, identifies four latent subgroups of alexithymia using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), with scores differing significantly by demographic and health factors.

Use Cases

• Identify latent subgroups of alexithymia based on TAS-20 assessment scores.
• Examine the association between alexithymia patterns and demographic factors like age group and income.
• Analyze the relationship between alexithymia subgroups and health perceptions or acute medical events.
• Develop targeted psychological interventions for specific alexithymia profiles in elderly populations.

Strengths

• Dataset includes 561 participants, a substantial sample for subgroup analysis.
• Data collection spanned six cities in Jiangsu Province, China, over a period from November 2022 to March 2024.
• Analysis identified four distinct latent subgroups with precise prevalence percentages (e.g., Emotional Repression Group 39.2%).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The 17.3 KB file size suggests a very limited scope, likely containing summary statistics rather than raw individual-level data.

Provenance

Source

Bin Shang via figshare.

Collection Method

Survey of 561 empty-nest older adults with multiple chronic conditions using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), followed by latent class analysis.

Time Range

November 2022–March 2024

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 13:07:58; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Six cities in Jiangsu Province, China