Living Needs And Social Support Of The Elderly In Rural Areas

BackgroundSince the21st century, China has entered the aging society facing serious pressures of aging. The aging population is not only a real problem for individuals and families, but also involves political, economic, cultural and social fields. For getting old before rich in China, the high proportion of aging population impact is immeasurable. In older age groups, the urban elderly are more robust security mechanism, while the rural elderly is relatively weak, so the background of our lives based on the needs of rural elderly and social support of the current research has profound practical significance and policy implications.Research on needs of the elderly of the academia had been more detailed, and the study of social support for the elderly was also more in depth. However, such studies were mainly small sample and unilateral research, which lack of large sample of nationwide system, and lack the research of the elderly in rural areas. Therefore, the rural elderly living needs and social support for academic research has a very important value.ObjectiveThe overall objective of this study:to probe into the background of an aging population living in rural elderly status and social support of our country, to interpret the current problems facing the rural elderly from a professional point of view, and then to think and summarize the findings to put forward relevant policy recommendations. Specific objectives:to understand the economic needs and economic support of rural elderly dependents; to understanding life care and life care support of rural elderly population; to understand the needs of spiritual solace of rural elderly and spiritual comfort support, to explore major mental rural elderly problems (depression) factors; finally, to find the main factors affecting the well-being of the elderly living in rural areas through living needs and social support as the dependent variable.MethodsData comes from2011～2012national baseline survey of "the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal survey (CHARLS)". Throughmulti-stage stratified probability proportionate to size (PPS) sampling, the study included4,040households,5,791respondents. Data analysis methods include:descriptive statistics, Generalized Linear Regression Model and multivariate regression analysis.Results(1) Economic needs and social support for the aged in rural areas.Economic support was higer than the economic needsof the elderly in rural areas. From the perspective of economic needs, economic needs of the elderly living alone were less than the elderly people not living alone; economic needs of the old women less than that of old men.60～69year people owned the highest economic demand,70～79years people owned the lowest economic needs; the higher of cultural degree, the higher of economic needs; the highest economic needs were non-agricultural people and the lowest were farmers. From the perspective of social support, crop income support was the highest and operating income was the lowest. The economic support of elderly people living alone was lower than that of elderly people not living alone; the economic support of old men was more than that of old women in rural; the highest economic support income was aged60～69people and the lowest income was70-79people; with the improvement of education level, economic support was increasing; the highest economic support was non-agricultural people, the lowest economic support was elderly farmers.(2) Care needs and social support of elderly people in rural areas.The overall self-assessment of rural elderly was poor. Health related indexes mainly: rural elderly smokers accounted for42.51%; drinkers accounted for30.27%; irregular diet accounted for16.97%; sleep problems accounted for42.88%; least one physical discomfort38.24%; least those who suffer from a chronic disease accounted for72.99%; surrounded prevalence was30.84%;4weeks treatment was21.98%; hospitalization rate was12.62%; the economic difficulties were the main cause of no treatment and being hospitalized but not in four weeks. Rural elderly was poor self-care ability. Main performance:the loss rate of BAD1function was10.22%, and the loss rate of IADL disability was19.72%, the loss rate of comprehensive physical function was38.07%, among them, the self-care ability of elderly living alone was lower than the elderly people not living alone generally, women less than men and the older, the poorer of self-care ability.The spouse was the major supporter of daily life to rural elderly people daily life; a serious lack was child care for the elderly; the rural elderly did not get support from formal organization.(3) Spiritual needs and social support in rural areas.Psychological support can not meet the comfort needs of large spiritual solace. First, only half of the rural elderly have leisure life. Among them, the proportion of elderly people living alone to participate in leisure life more than elderly people not living alone; males than females; the higher the age, the lower the proportion of participation in leisure life; Second, the rural elderly have better cognitive level. Among them, the majority of the rural elderly consider themselves better memory and cognitive status; men have good memory than women; the younger, the better memory. Third, more than half of the rural elderly with depressive symptoms, and depression is largely caused by the physical symptoms. (4) Influencing Factors analysis of the rural elderly life satisfaction.Rural elderly satisfied with life accounted for67.14%of the total sample population. Gender, age, educational level, whether living alone, working class, and income levels can significantly affect the rural elderly social support satisfaction rate.ConclusionsLiving needs of rural elderly face a situation of insufficient social support. Gender, age, educational level, whether living alone, working class, and income level of economic needs and social support factors can significantly affect the rural elderly social support satisfaction rate.Policy Implications(1) Improving income of the elderly in rural areas, and enhancing economic support;(2) Improving the system of the care of the elderly living in rural areas, focusing on enhancing the care of family;(3) Enhancing spiritual solace support to meet the spiritual needs of the rural elderly.