A Study On The Influence Of Family Care On The Health Of The Elderly

Good health is the foundation for the elderly to enjoy a good old age.In 2022,the "14th Five Year Plan for Healthy Ageing" jointly issued by 15 departments including the National Health Commission proposed that "by 2025,the health needs of the elderly will be better met,the health level of the elderly will continue to improve,and the healthy life expectancy will continue to extend.".The health mentioned here includes both physical and mental health.In the context of the continuous development of the aging population and the deepening implementation of the healthy China strategy in China,studying the impact of family care on the physical and mental health of the elderly and its mechanism of action,clarifying the role of family care in elderly care,and exploring effective ways to improve the health level of the elderly are conducive to promoting the realization of the goal of "providing for,relying on,and enjoying the elderly".This article uses the 2018 China Elderly Health Impact Factor Tracking Survey(CLHLS)data,taking whether family members provide family care as the core explanatory variable,and measures the impact of family care on the physical and mental health of the elderly by studying the impact of family care on their self rated health and depression.The Ordered Probit model and OLS model are mainly used for empirical analysis,robustness testing using household care intensity to replace explanatory variables,the propensity score matching method(PSM)deals with endogenous issues and performs heterogeneity analysis.The study found that,on the whole,family care has a significant positive impact on the physical and mental health of the elderly.Distinguishing care sources,spouse care and child care have a significant positive impact on the physical and mental health of the elderly,and the impact of spouse care is greater than that of child care,the impact of care provided by other relatives is not significant.From the perspective of urban and rural areas,family care has a significant positive impact on the physical and mental health of rural elderly,but has no significant impact on the physical and mental health of urban elderly.Based on the gender characteristics of the elderly,from the perspective of physical health status,family care significantly and positively affects the physical health of male and female elderly,and has a greater role in promoting the physical health of male elderly;From the perspective of mental health,family care has a significant positive impact on the mental health of female elderly people,but has no significant impact on the mental health of male elderly people.According to the physical health status of young and elderly people divided by age,family care has a significant positive impact on their physical health,and has a greater positive impact on their physical health;From the perspective of mental health status,family care has a significant positive impact on the mental health of the young elderly,but has no significant impact on the mental health of the elderly.Finally,in order to promote the sustainability of family care and meet the diverse family care needs of the elderly,based on the research findings,the following four countermeasures and suggestions are proposed:(1)Give full play to the positive role of family care and improve the health awareness of the elderly;(2)Provide differentiated policy support based on different sources of family care;(3)Increase support for rural family caregivers and enhance the care function of rural families;(4)Meet personalized care needs for different elderly groups.