Abstract
Severe aging in rural China is prompting communities to promote support for older people to age in place. The study of the daily life of older adults in rural areas is conducive to understanding their real life and demands, as well as the way they interact with their environment, to develop feasible strategies. In this study, 171 older adults over 60 years old in two different types of villages in Northern Zhejiang Province were investigated and analyzed in terms of the temporal and spatial features of daily activities, as well as their relationship with population attributes, personal competence, and subjective demands. The results show that: (1) significant association can be seen between working hours and the demand for health services, housework hours and gender and age, as well as leisure hours and ADL and the demand for recreational services. (2) The older adults appear to have inter-group homogeneity in some aspects: basic living activities, leisure hours, the gender difference in housework hours, and recreational preference, while they have higher average paid work hours and fewer leisure alternatives than their urban counterparts. Their definitions of paid work, housework, and leisure activities are vague. (3) The definition of home by the older adults in rural places sometimes seems to go beyond the scope of their own house, and the extensive definition of home may change their recognitions of some activities. They also inclined to assign meaning to a place through frequent use rather than through external definitions. (4) The weak consciousness on buying services and deteriorated financial situation hinders the older adults in rural communities from expressing their real demands. Unspoken demands include economic security, recreational choices, and assistance in housework. The results will help to provide references for the improvement of eldercare services and the community environment.
Highlights
With China entering the super-aging period [1], it is estimated that the number of aging people in China will reach 418 million by 2035, accounting for 39% of the world’s older population [2].Rural China is facing a more severe situation, where the aging rate has become even 5% higher than in urban areas [3,4]
(3) The definition of home by the older adults in rural places sometimes seems to go beyond the scope of their own house, and the extensive definition of home may change their recognitions of some activities
The trend that paid work and housework hours do not change with health status might indicate that the older adults have workawareness and housework do not change withwhich healthmay status indicatedemand that thefor older adults little of theirhours own physical condition, leadmight to a lagging healthcare havedisease little awareness and prevention.of their own physical condition, which may lead to a lagging demand for healthcare and disease prevention
Summary
Rural China is facing a more severe situation, where the aging rate has become even 5% higher than in urban areas [3,4]. Intergenerational ties, and family cohesiveness, which have long been rooted in Chinese traditional culture, strongly influence the older adults’ preference for aging-in-place (AIP) [5,6,7]. AIP refers to the possibility to live in one’s present non-healthcare environment till life ends by accessing multiple products or services within communities [8]. In order to cope with this situation, China has implemented the 9073 or 9064 model since 2009 to reach 90% of the older adults aging in their local communities [9]. In rural communities, shrinking family size and the
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