A Study Of The Effect Of Education Level On The Health Of Older Adults

In 2016,the "Health China 2030" planning outline issued by the State Council pointed out that we should make every effort to promote the construction of a healthy China and achieve health for all.However,the aging population has brought a series of new challenges to the process of promoting health for all in China.In order to improve the quality of life of the elderly,to reduce the pressure of family and social retirement,and to promote the health of all people and achieve the goal of "Healthy China",special attention needs to be paid to the health status of this special group of elderly people.Although there have been some studies on the relationship between education and health,there are few studies specifically on the elderly group,and most of the empirical models lack the treatment of endogenous problems;meanwhile,unlike the "one-way flow" between generations in western countries,there is a "feedback model" between parents and children in China.Unlike the "one-way flow" between generations in Western countries,there is a "feedback pattern" between parents and children in China,i.e.,children’s feed-back behavior,but there is little literature to explore the role of "child feeding back" in the influence of education level on the health status of older adults.Based on the above background,this paper uses the 2015 and 2018 China Health and Aging Tracking Survey data to construct a panel data,based on Grossman’s theory of health needs,household production theory and social network theory,and selects older adults with actual birth year before 1959 and living children as the study subjects,and explores the effect of education level on older adults’ health status through fixed effects model,instrumental variables method and mediated effects,and further investigated the mediating role of "child rearing" in the study.The findings of this study are as follows.First,the fixed-effects model and the instrumental variables method demonstrate that the higher the education level is,the better the health status of the elderly.Second,the positive effect of education level on the health status of female elderly is higher than that of male;the positive effect of education level on the health status of rural elderly is higher than that of urban elderly.Third,based on the mediating effect model,this paper finds that "financial support from children" and "offline interaction with children" play a significant mediating role in the effect of education level on older adults’ self-rated health,physical health and mental health.Fourth,by analyzing the gender heterogeneity of the mediating effect model,we found that for male older adults,"financial support from children" played a significant mediating role in the influence of education level on their mental health,but the mediating role of online and offline communication and interaction with children was not significant;for female older adults,both financial support from children and online and offline communication and interaction played a significant mediating role in the influence of education level on their mental health.Based on the above findings,this paper proposes the following suggestions: First,provide multi-channel geriatric education to improve the health literacy of the elderly.Second,increase the supply of educational resources in rural areas.Third,vigorously promote the "filial piety culture" and give full play to the role of the children’s back.Fourth,increase the popularity of the Internet among the elderly in rural areas.