An Investigation Of Long-Term Care Needs Of The Urban Eldly And Discussion Of Corresponding Service System

Objective: The long-term care needs of the urban eldly is studied by some functional, cognitive indicators and the features of population aging.The auther then discussed the infrastructure of the corresponding service system according to the needs.Methods:324 people aged 65 and above in communities of Nanjing were investigated by questionnaires for factors relevant to long-term care needs. Results:1.Long-term care needs of the urban eldly:The differences exist in rates of function disability of ADL and IADL,different ADLs and IADLs show that the long-term care needs of the urban eldly is in different levels.The factors that influence functional impairment apparently are age , number of chonic illness,features of illness,cognitive impairment, self-satisfaction of health condition and subjective support condition.The demographic and socioeconomic trends will lead to the long-term care needs increasing at high speed.The introduction of long-term care might provide the chance for a better structure of the health care system and tackle the financing problems.2.The discussion of long-term care system in our country:Informal support provided by families will be the basic content of long-term care delivery system.The home- and community-based care is the core part of the system and the residential care is also an important supplement.Suggestions:Long-term care system should be included in the reform of health care, programmed and supervised unitivly and reasonably.The delivery of long-term care should be developped in the market.Different long-term care financing mechanisms should be developed.The government should tackle the problem of long-term care needs of people in poverty.