Abstract
BackgroundTo address the challenge of the aging population, community-based care services (CBCS) have been developed rapidly in China as a new way of satisfying the needs of elderly people. Few studies have described the evolution trend of availability of CBCS in rural and urban areas and evaluated their effectiveness. This study aims to show the availability of China’s CBCS and further analyze the effect of the CBCS on the cognitive function of elderly people.MethodsLongitudinal analysis was performed using data from the 2008 to 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). A total of 23937 observations from 8421 elderly people were included in the study. The Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to assess cognitive function. We aggregated similar CBCS to generate three binary variable categories (daily life support, emotional comfort and entertainment services, medical support and health services) indicating the availability of CBCS (1 = yes, 0 = no). Multilevel growth models were employed to estimate the association between CBCS and cognitive function while adjusting for many demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.ResultsThe availability of CBCS increased a lot from 2008 to 2018 in China. Although the availability of CBCS in urban areas was higher than that in rural areas in 2008, by 2018 the gap narrowed significantly. Emotional comfort and entertainment services (B = 0.331, 95% CI = 0.090 to 0.572) and medical support and health services (B = 1.041, 95% CI = 0.854 to 1.228) were significantly and positively associated with cognitive function after adjusting for the covariates.ConclusionThere was a significant increase in the availability of CBCS from 2008 to 2018 in China. This study sheds light on the positive correlation between CBCS and cognitive function among Chinese elderly individuals. The results suggest that policymakers should pay more attention to the development of CBCS and the equity of the supply of CBCS in urban and rural areas.
Highlights
China is aging at an unprecedented rate, which raises great concern for public health
The results indicated that emotional comfort and entertainment services (B = 0.331, 95% CI = 0.090 to 0.572) and medical support and health services (B = 1.041, 95% CI = 0.854 to 1.228) were significantly and positively associated with cognitive function after adjusting for the covariates
In conclusion, this study described the evolution trend in the availability of community-based care services (CBCS), discussed the difference between urban and rural areas, and provided evidence that CBCS are important factors to protect the cognitive function of elderly individuals while adjusting for many demographic and socioeconomic characteristics
Summary
China is aging at an unprecedented rate, which raises great concern for public health. The survey data from National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China showed that more than 180 million Chinese elderly people suffer from chronic diseases, and it is common for the elderly to suffer from multiple chronic diseases [4]. Another survey shows that among the elderly people in China, 38.1% of them need visiting nursing service, 12.1% of them need housekeeping service, 11.3% of them need rehabilitation nursing service, 10.6% of them need psychological counseling service, 10.3% of them need health education service, 9.4% of them need daily care service [5]. This study aims to show the availability of China’s CBCS and further analyze the effect of the CBCS on the cognitive function of elderly people
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
