Economic Status, Family Dependence, and Health Outcomes of Older People in Western Rural China

ABSTRACT

There is a deficiency in empirical knowledge on the physical and mental health of lower-income older people with weak family support in western rural China. To address this research gap, this article uses the data from the 2014 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey to analyze the disadvantaged situation of older people in western rural China through a regional comparative analysis. Our sample consisted of 7,138 older adults aged 60 or older in eastern and western, rural and urban China. We find that lower personal income is significantly associated with poor physical and mental health. Economic support from families means more for older people when they have a disability related to activities of daily living in western rural China. Fostering stronger family support networks might improve the mental health status of older people in western rural China. Our study suggests a broader scope for the state to play a greater role in economic empowerment and in the development of policies to effectively meet the present and future needs of older people in western rural China or other countries with an imbalance in the distribution of the aging population and welfare resources.

KEYWORDS:

• Older adults
• family support
• family dependence
• rural
• western China

Acknowlegments

Dr. Wei Guo is particularly grateful to his parents, Zhongwu Guo and Bifang Wang, for their constant encouragement, unconditional love, and firing his impulse to write this research paper on aging and social policy in China.

Notes

¹ According to the geographical classification method from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjzs/cjwtjd/201308/t20130829_74318.html), eastern China includes 11 provinces or municipalities: Liaoning, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan. The central region includes 8 provinces: Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan. Western China includes 12 provinces or municipalities: Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi.

² Total sample of the CLASS 2014 is 11,511. In our study, the four groups of eastern urban group (3,379), eastern rural group (1,212), western urban group (868) and western rural group (1,679) add up to the figure of 7,138. So the rest (4,373) is middle China.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (NSSFC) under Grant No. 14CRK014 and the China Scholarship Council (CSC) under Grant No. 201706195028.