Social participation and urban-rural disparity in mental health among older adults in China

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore the effect of social participation on disparity in mental health among urban and rural older adults in China. Methods: The data used in this study was sourced from the 2014 wave of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Furthermore, multiple linear regression model was adopted to analyze the effect of social participation on mental health. Moreover, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition for linear model was applied to explore the effect of social participation on urban-rural disparity in mental health. Results: The regression result indicates that social participation significantly improved cognitive ability and psychological health for urban and rural older adults, and its health effect was significantly stronger for rural older adults. Furthermore, the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition result reveals that approximately 18% of cognitive ability disparity could be attributed to urban-rural disparity in social participation. Moreover, urban-rural disparity in social participation could explain about 11% of psychological health disparity. Conclusion: Urban older adults had better mental health than their rural counterparts. Furthermore, social participation was beneficial for mental health for urban and rural older adults. Urban-rural disparity in social participation made an important contribution to mental health disparity between urban and rural older adults. The results of this study emphasized the importance of social participation of older adults.