Mapping the dynamic social care needs and unmet needs of older people in China

Abstract

As China’s population is ageing rapidly, meeting the increasing social care needs of older people is a pressing challenge for the government. However, little is known about how social care needs and unmet needs change over time. Using data from the 2014 Life History Survey, Waves 3 (2015), and 4 (2018) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this piece of research aims to examine the dynamic patterns of social care needs and unmet needs in later life, as well as comprehensively understand their predictors, following the Andersen’s behaviour model and life course perspective.
Results of cross-sectional analysis suggest that age, illiteracy, physical activities, earned income, and physical health status are statistically significant predictors of reporting social care needs for ADLs and IADLs. Living arrangements and experience of hunger prior to the age of 17 were significant predictors of unmet needs for ADLs or IADLs. Results of longitudinal analysis indicate that about half of the analytical sample who needed help with ADLs or IADLs in Wave 3 no longer needed such help in Wave 4, while 7% report repeated unmet needs for ADLs and IADLs. Marital status, physical limitations, and experiences of hunger prior to the age of 17 are significant predictors of different dynamic patterns of social care needs and unmet needs across the two waves. The key findings of this study are useful for enhancing China’s social care system to provide sustainable and tailored support for its older population. Additionally, these findings draw attention to the importance of providing social protection for older people so as to blunt the far-reaching influence of early-life adversities.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Athina Vlachantoni: orcid.org/0000-0003-1539-3057

ORCID for Maria Evandrou: orcid.org/0000-0002-2115-9358

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