Impact of Home-based Care and Institutionbased Care on Older Adults’ Health in China: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Objective: This study compares between two types of care for older adults′ health, viz., home -based care and. Institution-based care in the context of China, and further explored the impact of each care type on their health. Methods: A fully aligned polygonal graphical indexing method, t-tests, logistic binary regression analysis were performed using SPSS for data analysis. Results: In both care types, females had higher incidence of one or more chronic disease than males, as well as anxiety. However, hypertension was the chronic disease with the highest incidence, higher in males than females. Care types had significant impact on variables like self-reported health (OR=0.329, [CI95%=0.107-1.010], p<0.05) and mental health (OR=0.567, [CI95%=0.364-0.881], p<0.05), but had no significant impact on the objective physical health (OR=1.010, [CI95%=0.577-1.767], p>0.05). Conclusion: Both the types of care of older adults showed a significant impact on the self-reported and mental health, but only a significant difference was made on their mental health. Information exchange and emotional communication through smart facilities and the Internet useability, such as eHealth training, intelligent old-age care may be good interventions to improve older adults′ health.