Study On The Influence Of The Availability Of Care Resources On The Health Of The Elderly In Rural China

As of November 1,2020,China’s elderly aged 65 and over accounted for 13.5%,which was close to the proportion standard of the moderately aging society(14%).Among them,the rural elderly aged 65 and over accounted for 17.72%,which was6.61% higher than that in cities and towns.The rural-aging extent was more severe,and the development of elderly health services was facing more severe challenges.It is an inevitable requirement for social harmony and stability to properly deal with the process of population aging in rural areas,improve the availability of care resources for the rural elderly to meet their needs of realizing healthy old-age care,keep and accelerate the health of the rural elderly and realize healthy aging.Using the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS),this paper empirically analyzes the impact of the availability of care resources on the health of the elderly in rural China and its mechanism.The availability of care resources is divided into the availability of child care,economic support and social care.The health level can be divided into self-rated,physical and mental health.The study found that the overall self-rated health of the elderly in rural is low,and the proportion of receiving social care is also low;The availability of child care and financial support can improve the self-rated and mental health of rural elderly,but may inhibit their physical health;The availability of social care has no significant effect on the self-rated health of rural elderly,but has a significant negative effect on physical and mental health;Increasing the income level of the rural elderly has a significant positive improvement on the health of them;The influence channel test shows that emotional support to the rural elderly,especially the support of relatives from blood,is a feasible channel for the availability of care resources to affect the health of the elderly.The policy implication of this paper is: scientifically popularize the health knowledge of the rural elderly,and improve the self cognitive ability of the rural elderly to improve their own health level;Further promote the balance between supply and demand of care resources for the elderly,try to improve the availability of child care for the rural elderly,and pay attention to avoiding the negative impact of inter-generational conflicts and family contradictions on the physical health of the elderly;Pay more attention to the coordination of child care and social care,enhance the quality of rural elderly access to basic services,and improve the effect of social care on rural elderly health;Improve the economic and material supply capacity for the daily life of the rural elderly;Encourage society and families to increase emotional support for the rural elderly and increase spiritual comfort for the rural elderly.