Impact Of Targeted Poverty Alleviation On Mental Health Of Rural Middle-aged And Elderly

With the rapid development of economy,the degree of aging in China is also deepening.According to the division standard of the United Nations,China has entered the stage of population aging in 2000.According to the results of the seventh national census,By 2020,China’s population aged 60 and over has reached 264 million,accounting for18.70% of the total population,and the population aged 65 and over has reached 191 million,accounting for 13.50% of the total population.The number of elderly people over 60 and 65 is increasing,and their respective proportion in the total population is also increasing.The census data not only intuitively but also fully shows that the degree of population aging in China is further deepening,but also the speed of aging is accelerating.Facing the change of population structure and the absolute increase of the number of the elderly,the state and society should make corresponding plans to give more attention and support to the middle-aged and elderly,especially the elderly in rural areas.In the past,the vast majority of the poor were middle-aged and elderly people.For a long time,poverty has been a major problem perplexing China and other developing countries.At the beginning of the founding of the People’s Republic of China,the state carried out small-scale relief poverty alleviation.Since then,the target of poverty alleviation from poor counties to poor villages,and then to the targeted poverty alleviation policy first proposed in 2013,we should take poor individuals as the target of the policy.Through unremitting efforts throughout the country,China will achieve the great goal of lifting all poor households out of poverty by 2020.This is of great significance to Chinese historical development and also marks an important step in the journey of realizing common prosperity.In the past,the number of middle-aged and elderly people in poor groups can not be ignored.In the process of consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and the connection of the Rural Revitalization Strategy,in the face of the aggravation of the aging population,the state should focus on the middle-aged and elderly people with low income to prevent them from returning to poverty,which will not only affect their living standards,but also affect their mental health.Therefore,it is necessary to study the impact of targeted Poverty Alleviation Policies on the mental health of rural middle-aged and elderly people.Under the Rural Revitalization Strategy,we should strengthen the protection and support for the middle-aged and elderly,improve their mental health and enhance their effectiveness.This paper mainly uses the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS)nationwide in 2011,2013,2015 and 2018,and carries out missing value elimination and matching to finally form four phases of balanced panel data.The explanatory variable is whether it is affected by the targeted poverty alleviation policy.The explanatory variable is the mental health of the middle-aged and elderly.It is measured by constructing the depression index score(CES-D).If the depression index is higher,the mental health will be worse.At the same time,according to relevant literature references,the per capita income,family size,the number of children,the number of chronic diseases,the number of social activities,gender,age,education level,marital status,whether to drink,smoke and exercise were taken as the control variables.In order to better analyze the impact of policies on the mental health of the middleaged and elderly,this paper uses the difference in difference model(DID)for benchmark regression.In order to have better robustness and reliability,the propensity score matching method(PSM)is used to match the sample data,and then did regression again to obtain relatively robust regression results.In addition,the parallel trend test is also carried out on the samples to ensure that the data can use the double difference model.Finally,this paper divides the middle-aged and elderly people into four age groups according to their age,and analyzes the impact of policies on the middle-aged and elderly people of different ages.At the same time,this paper also analyzes the intermediary effect through the stepwise regression method,and believes that the targeted poverty alleviation policy mainly improves the mental health status by improving the income level of the middle-aged and the elderly.Research shows that under the targeted poverty alleviation policy,the mental health status of rural middle-aged and elderly people can be significantly improved.The depression index score of individuals affected by the policy will be significantly lower than that of individuals not affected by the policy by 2.55.Income level,marital status,the number of chronic diseases,the number of social activities,gender,age and education also have a significant impact on the mental health of the elderly.Being able to participate in more social activities is more conducive to the mental health of the elderly.However,the data show that the number of social activities currently participated by the elderly in rural areas is very small,which may be caused by the lack of sufficient infrastructure construction and cultural and entertainment places in rural areas.The more chronic diseases the elderly suffer,the worse their mental health is,which is caused by the characteristics of chronic diseases.The treatment cycle of chronic diseases is long,and will accompany the elderly for a long time,which can not be completely cured.They will suffer from both physical and psychological torture.The higher the income level,the better the mental health status of the elderly.This is because the high income enables them to spend more and buy more and better medical and health care services.This paper also divides the research objects into three categories according to their age,income level and the number of social activities.It is found that different age groups,high-income groups and low-income groups,as well as more and less social activities,are affected by different policies.The elderly aged 65-75 are the most affected by the policy.The improvement of their mental health is also higher for high-income groups and participating in more social activities.According to the research conclusion of this paper,in order to better deal with the aging population and improve the mental health of the middle-aged and elderly.This paper suggests that first,we should continue to track the middle-aged and elderly people who have just lifted out of poverty,accurately match their differentiated needs and continue to provide assistance according to the characteristics of different age groups.Second,we should continue to adjust measures to local conditions,carry out industrial poverty alleviation and improve the income level.Third,we should strengthen infrastructure construction,provide appropriate cultural and entertainment venues for the middle-aged and elderly,and enable them to carry out regular social activities.