The Effect Of Social Participation On Health Outcomes For Elder People In China

With the increasing problem of population aging,the Chinese government has introduced relevant policies to deal with this problem.Active aging is an effective measure to solve the problem of population aging,encourage the elderly to actively participate in society,it has practical significance to achieve healthy aging and to improve the health level of the elderly.At present,many scholars have investigated the social involvement of the elderly from theoretical and empirical perspectives,and various study findings have been made.Based on the combing of relevant literature,this paper investigates social participation on the health of the elderly in China.It also offers theoretical and empirical backing for government policy interventions to improve family aging functions and the health of China’s elderly population.In this paper,we first used literature analysis to sort out and summarize the existing research results on social participation,elderly health and their related relationships;secondly,we used data from the China Health and Aging Tracking Survey(CHARLS)to analyze the effects of social participation on elderly’s daily living ability,mental health and self-rated health through linear mixed models.In addition,this paper has also studied the impact of social participation types number and the frequency of social participation on the health of the elderly.To address possible endogeneity issues,the variable "children’s highest education" was selected as the instrumental variable and instrumental variable method was used to obtain more accurate and reliable estimation results.In order to make the results more robust,binary discrete models have been used to study the impact of social participation on the health of older adults.The impact of social participation on health in old age was then examined in terms of gender heterogeneity and urban-rural heterogeneity.Then,in terms of socioeconomic status and intergenerational support,the regulatory mechanisms of social participation in the health of older persons were investigated.Finally,based on the results of the study,appropriate recommendations are made to promote the social participation of older persons and the level of health of older persons.The empirical results show that social participation has a positive effect on the health of the elderly.Compared with older people who have not participated in social activities,older people who participate in social activities have better daily self-care functions,higher mental health levels,and better self-rated health status.As the number of types of social participation increased,the level of older persons’ health is higher.As the frequency of social participation increases,the health of the elderly is getting better.Heterogeneity tests showed that there were significant heterogeneity differences in the effects of social participation on elderly health by gender and between urban and rural areas,with social participation improving the health of elderly women more than men,and improving the health of urban elderly more than rural elderly.In terms of impact mechanisms,both socioeconomic status and intergenerational support play a partially moderating role in the relationship between social participation and health in the elderly.According to the findings,it can be concluded that social participation is a critical way to improve the health of the elderly,and society should take multiple measures to promote social participation among the elderly,create an enabling environment for participation in society,enhance the role of families and communities in the system of care for older persons and actively encourage older persons to participate in society.