Association between Socioeconomic Status, Physical Health and Need for Long-term Care among the Chinese Elderly.

Fanlei Kong,Chengchao Zhou,Mei Kong,Shixue Li,Bin Ai,Lingzhong Xu,Jianghua Zhang

doi:10.3390/ijerph16122124

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), physical health and the need for long-term care (NLTC) of the Chinese elderly, and further, to provide evidence-based advice for establishing an LTC system in China. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Shandong Province, China in 2017 by using multi-stage random sampling method. Data were collected from elderly individuals aged 60 years and older by self-designed questionnaires through face-to face interviews. A total of 7070 participants were finally included in the database (40.3% male, 59.7% female). Chi-square test analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted to clarify the association between SES, physical health and NLTC among the Chinese elderly men and women in Shandong Province. The results of the SEM analysis showed that physical health exerted a strong and negative effect on the NLTC for both genders, with a slightly stronger effect found among the elderly men. SES was found to be significantly and negatively related to the NLTC among the elderly women, while no statistical significance was found for the association between SES and NLTC for elderly men. A significant and positive association between SES and physical health was observed among the elderly men and women, with a slightly stronger effect among the elderly women. Implications for lowering the NLTC and developing an LTC system were addressed based on the findings above.

Highlights

With a decline in fertility and mortality and an increase in life expectancy in the past decades, population aging—the continuous raise of the percentage of the population in the old age group—is accelerating globally
The current study aims to fill this research gap, and further clarify whether a gender difference exists in the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), physical health and need for long-term care (NLTC) among Chinese seniors in Shandong Province
Statistical differences between the male and female elderly based on LTCN were not found (p = 0.771)

Summary

Introduction

With a decline in fertility and mortality and an increase in life expectancy in the past decades, population aging—the continuous raise of the percentage of the population in the old age group—is accelerating globally. The total world population in 1960 was 3033 million, with 5% of population being older adults aged 65 years old and over [1]. While the total population of the world in 2019 is 7715 million, elderly people aged 65 and older constitutes 9% of the total population [2]. It is projected that there will be a world population of 9772 million in 2050, with 16% of individuals being. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2124; doi:10.3390/ijerph16122124 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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