Abstract
BackgroundInstitutional care has become an urgent issue in rural China. Rural single seniors, compared with their counterparts, have lower income and are more vulnerable. Gender is also a significant factor determining long-term institutional care. This study is designed to examine the gender difference towards utilization willingness of institutional care among rural single seniors.MethodsA total of 505 rural single seniors were included in the analysis. Binary logistic regression model was used to examine the gender difference towards utilization willingness for institutional care, and also to identify the determinants of the utilization willingness for institutional care among rural single male and female seniors.ResultsOur study found that about 5.7% rural single seniors had willingness for institutional care in Shandong, China. Single females were found to be less willing for institutional care than single males in rural areas (OR = 0.19; 95 CI 0.06-0.57). It’s also found that psychological stress was associated with institutionalization willingness in both single males (P = 0.045) and single females (P = 0.013) in rural China. The rural single seniors who lived alone were found to be more willing for institutional care both in males (P = 0.032) and females (P = 0.002) compared with those who lived with children or others.ConclusionsThis study found that there was a gender difference towards utilization willingness for institutional care among single seniors in rural China. Factors including psychological stress and living arrangements were determinants of institutionalization willingness both in single males and females. Targeted policies should be made for rural single seniors of different gender.
Highlights
Institutional care has become an urgent issue in rural China
Association of gender and willingness for institutionalization among single seniors We presented our results in two models so that we could better understand the association between gender and institutionalization willingness in rural single seniors (Table 2)
Model 1 showed that institutionalization willingness was statistically lower in single females than in single males (OR = 0.36; 95CI 0.16-0.77)
Summary
Institutional care has become an urgent issue in rural China. Gender is a significant factor determining long-term institutional care. This study is designed to examine the gender difference towards utilization willingness of institutional care among rural single seniors. For thousands of years, taking care of the elderly by adult children in family was a basic norm in the Confucian doctrine [1]. The number of Chinese people aged 60 years and above has reached 212.4 million by 2014, which accounted for 15.5% of the general population [4]. It’s estimated that China, with an amount of 98.3 million old people aged 80 or over in 2050, will still be one of those countries which have the greatest numbers of oldest-old [5].
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