Functional Ability and Its Associated Factors Among Chinese People Aged 50 Years and Above from the Perspective of Healthy Aging: A 7-Year Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT

Although a new conceptualization of functional ability was proposed in the Decade of Healthy Aging, few studies attempted to understand functional ability among older adults from a holistic review. Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study from 2011 to 2018, the study investigated the current situation of five domains of functional ability (ability to self-care, being mobile, building/maintaining relationships, contributing to society, learning, and growing), the overall functional ability score and their associated factors among older people. Compared to other functional ability domains, the ability to contribute to society and learn/grow has been largely underdeveloped. Rural respondents were 23% ~ 48% less likely to preserve the five functional ability domains than their urban peers. The findings in this study suggest that China should shift the paradigm to healthy aging by providing more opportunities for the aged to pursue their ability to contribute to society, and the ability to learn, grow and make decisions. Timely policies to maintain functional ability should target those with rural hukou, low education, and low income, especially those with poor cognition.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• disability
• functional ability
• healthy aging policy
• older adults

Key points

• Only 6.14% and 0.22% of respondents reported participating in activities related to contributing to society and learning/taking a course, respectively.

• Rural respondents were 23% ~ 48% less likely to preserve the five functional ability domains than their urban peers.

• Rural respondents had lower overall functional ability scores than their urban peers when they had low memory functioning.

• Active aging and healthy aging policies should be promoted. The hukou household registration system should be reformed to remove the urban/rural dichotomy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Ethics approval

The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study received ethical approval from the institutional review board of Peking University. All respondents provided written informed consent, and all data were deidentified.

Consent to participate

All respondents provided written informed consent for The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2023.2226286.

Additional information

Funding

The author declares that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.