Research on Health Status and Health Care of the Elderly in China

The issue of health status and care for the elderly in urban and rural areas is becoming increasingly serious in the rapid context of population aging in China.The paper analyzed the health status of urban and rural elderly in China in the two-week morbidity rate,prevalence rate of chronic diseases, disability status,self-rated health and healthy life expectancy of the elderly using the data from the 2006 Sampling Survey on the Status of Urban/ Rural Aged Population in China,the Fourth National Health Service Survey and the 2006 Second China National Sample Survey on Disability,to explore the current provision of sources of care for the elderly and try to make some policy recommendations about to improve the health and care for the elderly population facing the crisis of population aging.     

Nativity and Older Women's Health: Constructed Reliance in the Health and Retirement Study

ABSTRACT

Gender and nativity are known risk factors for physical and economic dependency. Immigrant women are particularly disadvantaged because of their greater lack of social and economic resources. In this study, we investigate how women immigrants coordinate and utilize various support systems as they approach retirement age, as well as how choices and constraints affect their physical well-being. Experiences throughout the life course play a role in the maintenance of health, but the pre-retirement years are particularly crucial to the establishment of patterns of reliance to be used in later life. We examine the effects of economic resources, social support, and family ties (as well as several exogenous variables) on women's physical health using data from the Health and Retirement Survey. For the women in this study, demographic characteristics, such as Hispanic ethnicity and low education are strong risk factors for poor health. Findings also indicate that reliance patterns across resource domains do not differ significantly by nativity and that both economic and familial resource access significantly lessens the risk of poor health for both native and foreign born women.     

Health insurance in the near elderly population

A number of studies have documented therising number of persons under age 65 who do not havehealth insurance. This paper focuses on the healthinsurance status of near elderly, those persons age 55through 64. A comparison age group, persons age 45through 54, is selected for benchmark purposes. Utilizing data from the 1996 Current PopulationSurvey, logistic regression is used to generateinsurance status prediction equations for both agegroups. Household characteristics, income, educationand employment are found to be significant predictorsof health insurance status, but fewer-than-expecteddifferences are found in comparing equations betweenthe two age groups. Results are discussed in thecontext of recent proposals to extend Medicarecoverage, the effect of Medicare policy changes on thenumber of near elderly persons without healthinsurance, and how prolonged periods of time withouthealth insurance may lead to an increased burden onMedicare as newly eligible Medicare recipients seekservices to address their pent-up demand for healthcare.     

健康老龄化与卫生服务利用探析

为探讨我国健康老龄化现状与卫生服务利用的关系,提供有效卫生服务、制定合理卫生策略,采用人口学理论与流行病学技术相结合的方法,调查分析黑龙江省大庆市部分60岁及以上老年人的健康情况及卫生服务需求与利用现状。调查显示,除躯体健康较差外,部分老年人还存在一定程度的心理损伤和社会功能缺失。加大社区医疗机构投入,提高医疗服务质量,倡导老年人积极锻炼身体、与子女建立和谐的关系以及有效改善睡眠,对促进老年人健康,推进我国健康老龄化的进程具有重要的现实意义。     

政府支出对医疗服务健康公平影响的比较和启示

医疗服务公平和人民的健康是各国卫生系统向其国家居民提供医疗服务所应实现的两个重要目标。但以英美日为例的发达国家根据世界卫生统计年鉴中的医疗服务公平性排名确有明显差距,因此,高收入和高政府医疗卫生支出与医疗卫生服务公平和健康公平性并没有必然关系。本文通过比较分析美日英国的政府间医疗卫生支出责任划分的结构发现高政府医疗卫生支出比例是提高医疗服务筹资公平性的前提,中央承担社会医疗保险责任是实现医疗服务筹资公平性的保证,政府特别是中央政府出资的长期护理有助于提高国民健康水平,地方政府的参与更有助于提高一国医疗系统机构数量特别是医院的数量。     

Health and Health Care

Social Indicators Research - Quality of life in the area of health and health care is measured in terms of inputs, throughputs and outcomes in Korea. The national healthinsurance program has...     

Cross-National Sources of Health Inequality: Education and Tobacco Use in the World Health Survey

The spread of tobacco use from the West to other parts of the world, especially among disadvantaged socioeconomic groups, raises concerns not only about the indisputable harm to global health but also about worsening health inequality. Arguments relating to economic cost and diffusion posit that rising educational disparities in tobacco use—and associated disparities in health and premature mortality—are associated with higher national income and more advanced stages of cigarette diffusion, particularly among younger persons and males. To test these arguments, we use World Health Survey data for 99,661 men and 123,953 women from 50 low-income to upper-middle–income nations. Multilevel logistic regression models show that increases in national income and cigarette diffusion widen educational disparities in smoking among young persons and men but have weaker influences among older persons and women. The results suggest that the social and economic patterns of cigarette adoption across low- and middle-income nations foretell continuing, and perhaps widening, disparities in mortality.     

LGBT Health in the Midlands: A Rural/Urban Comparison of Basic Health Indicators

Research into the health and wellbeing of rural lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations is limited. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach was used to develop an online survey for LGBT Nebraskans. The 770 participants replied to an array of questions on social determinants of health and basic health outcomes. Only significant differences in having health insurance were found between urban and rural participants. Social determinants of health were explored. Results of this study suggest that regional culture may be more salient to health for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons living in the Midwest than rural or urban residence.     

Solitary Time and Mental Health in the Netherlands

Whereas prior research focused on the beneficial effects of time spent with others, this study investigated the association between solitary time and mental health by hypothesizing about the possible detriments as well as benefits. Additionally, we studied whether the association between solitary time and mental health was nonlinear and moderated by gender and life stage. We hypothesized that whereas solitary time limits individuals’ access to social resources and support (decreasing mental health), it also helps individuals to recharge (enhancing mental health). We used the Dutch Time Use Survey from 2006 (N = 1,487). Results of Tobit models indicated that more solitary time in leisure (but not household labor) was associated with a reduction in mental health. For men, we did find a negative association between alone time in household labor and mental health. There was no evidence for a curvilinear relationship between time alone and mental health, nor did life course stage appeared to moderate this association.     

蒙古国人口健康状况分析

蒙古国为世界上人口密度较低的国家,尽管近年来人口总量有所增长,但人口增长仍然很慢,且人口分布不平衡问题严重,80%以上的人口居住在城市。在联合国开发计划署、联合国人口基金、世界银行和亚洲银行等国际组织多年来的支持下,蒙古国人口生殖健康状况有很大改善,但是仍然存在城乡差距较大、部分省份孕产妇死亡率居高不下、孕妇身体健康状况不容乐观等问题。从身体健康的角度来看,蒙古国内仍然存在儿童营养不足、全国人口营养不良发生率较高、生存环境的安全得不到保障等问题。     

Education and the Gender Gaps in Health and Mortality

The positive associations between education and health and survival are well established, but whether the strength of these associations depends on gender is not. Is the beneficial influence of education on survival and on self-rated health conditioned by gender in the same way, in opposite ways, or not at all? Because women are otherwise disadvantaged in socioeconomic resources that are inputs to health, their health and survival may depend more on education than will men??s. To test this hypothesis, we use data from the National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality Files (NHIS-LMF). We find that education??s beneficial influence on feeling healthy and on survival are conditional on gender, but in opposite ways. Education has a larger effect on women??s self-rated health than on men??s, but a larger effect on men??s mortality. To further examine the mortality results, we examine specific causes of death. We find that the conditional effect is largest for deaths from lung cancer, respiratory disease, stroke, homicide, suicide, and accidents. Because women report worse health but men??s mortality is higher, education closes the gender gap in both health and mortality.     

我国农村地区老年人群体的健康状况研究

今天,健康已经成为人们生活质量的重要组成部分。中国作为世界上老龄化速度最快的国家之一．人口老龄化是本世纪我国遇到的一个重要社会问题。随着老年人口的增加,不仅仅是城市地区,农村老年人群体的健康条件也越来越引起人们的重视。为此,本文使用2005年4月进行的全国性抽样跟踪调查数据。对我国五个省份地区的八百多个五十岁以上的老年人健康进行了调查分析。研究表明。农村地区老年人的身体健康存在明显的性别差异和地区差异,尤其是老年女性的身体健康状况较男性明显落后。     

The Impact of the AIDS Pandemic on Health Services in Africa: Evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys

We document the impact of the AIDS crisis on non-AIDS-related health services in 14 sub-Saharan African countries. Using multiple waves of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for each country, we examine antenatal care, birth deliveries, and rates of immunization for children born between 1988 and 2005. We find deterioration in nearly all these dimensions of health care over this period. The most recent DHS survey for each country collected data on HIV prevalence, which allows us to examine the association between HIV burden and health care. We find that erosion of health services is the largest in regions that have developed the highest rates of HIV. Regions of countries that have light AIDS burdens have witnessed small or no declines in health care, using the measures noted above, while those regions shouldering the heaviest burdens have seen the largest erosion in non-HIV-related health services for pregnant women and children. Using semiparametric techniques, we can date the beginning of the divergence in the use of antenatal care and in children’s immunizations between high- and low-HIV regions to the mid-1990s.     

健康资本对我国中老年人医疗服务利用影响研究

基于健康资本对于中老年人医疗服务利用的影响,利用中国健康与养老追踪调查2011年数据,从健康资本及预防学的观点,研究健康资本对于我国中老年人医疗服务利用的影响.结果表明,在控制了社会人口学因素的前提下,健康自评等健康资本都是影响我国中老年人医疗服务利用的重要因素,相对于中年人而言老年人的医疗服务利用行为受到的影响更为显著.应该从预防保健的角度改善中老年人的健康状况,从而减轻对医疗卫生服务形成的压力.     

健康动态谱：一种研究非自愿移民群体迁后健康轨迹的新思路

笔者通过对国内外几种有关“非自愿移民”的定义、分类模式和政策取向的分析,发现在这些方面均缺乏对非自愿移民群体健康期望的描述和对该群体健康失衡问题的关注。笔者认为这导致了相关政策中对非自愿移民群体成员健康失衡补偿的缺失,由此提出对非自愿移民群体健康进行研究的必要性。笔者还提出了“健康动态谱”的概念及其调查方法以补充以往的研究模式．希望此种方法的实践结果能为非自愿移民群体的健康研究及补偿工作提供科学依据。     

全球化中的中国生殖健康产业

全球生殖健康产业近年以其高度国际化、集团化形式迅速发展。强化中国生殖健康产业意识并给予优良的发展空间已“时不我待”。在正视现阶段中国生殖健康产业基本特点及体制“双轨”、部门“割据”、政府角色模糊的现状基础上,尽快理顺体制、优化产业发展的“生态”环境,是“与时俱进”融入全球生殖健康产业发展的惟一选择。     

China Participated in the 67th World Health Assembly

正The 67th World Health Assembly was held in Geneva during19~24 May 2014.Mr.Wang Guoqiang,Vice Minister of National Health and Family Planning Commission(NHFPC)and Director-General of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine led a Chinese delegation consisted of officials from NHFPC,Ministry of Foreign Affairs,China Food     

Health

Social Indicators Research -     

Health and the Quality of Life

The aim of this investigation was to explain theimpact of peoples self-reported health on theirlevels of satisfaction with their health, and theimpact of these things plus satisfaction with otherspecific domains of their lives on the perceivedquality of their lives. The latter was operationalized as general happiness, satisfactionwith life as a whole and overall satisfaction with thequality of life. Seven hundred and twenty-three (723)usable questionnaires returned from a mailout randomsample of 2500 households of Prince George, BritishColumbia in November 1998 formed the working data-setfor our analyses. Among other things, mean respondentscores on the SF-36 health profile were found to belower than published norms from the UK, USA,Netherlands and Sweden, but higher than scores fromAberdeen, Scotland. Mean scores on the CES-Ddepression scale also indicated that our respondentstended to have more depressive symptoms thancomparison groups in Winnipeg and the USA. A review oftrends in mean scores on 17 quality of life items(e.g., satisfaction with family life, financialsecurity, recreation, etc.) from 1994, 1997 and 1998revealed that there were only 7 statisticallysignificant changes across the four year period andthey were all negative. Multivariate regressionanalysis showed that health status measured with avariety of indicators could explain 56% of thevariation in respondents reported satisfaction withtheir health. A combination of health status plusdomain satisfaction indicators could explain 53% ofthe variation in respondents reported happiness, 68%of reported life satisfaction and 63% of reportedsatisfaction with the overall quality of life. Sixtypercent of the explained variation in happiness scoreswas attributable to self-reported health scores, whileonly 18% of the explained variation in satisfactionwith life and with the overall quality of life scoreswas attributable self-reported health scores.