| BackgroundChina is the largest country in the aging population in the world, and is also one of the fastest aging countries in the world. It is predicted that by 2050, the proportion of China’s elderly population over the age of 60 will increase to 30% from 10% in 2000. As the population aging process growing, the elderly health has increasingly become the focus of the whole society. Elderly health is not only the main basis of evaluation of aged life quality, also reflects China’s medical and health cause, social and economic development and social old-age security indicators, but also the important indicator of medical and health care resource allocation. Under the background of medical reform become the hot spot to discuss the influence of family economic support for the elderly health can help create residents’ health promotion system which is more in line with China’s national conditions, and seeking health promotion way which is outside medical service is especially important for China.In recent years, the Chinese government has implemented a minimum living security system,the new cooperative medical care system,urban residents medical insurance system and the low-income residents medical help and a series of social security system, especially in the field of health services, ageing population should be one of the most important benefit groups. However, the reality of Chinese old before rich, makes family still has an irreplaceable role in the pension system. Then, after meeting the elderly life needs,wether family intergenerational economic support can improve the elderly health and what factors will affect the economic support for seniors is worthy of further research.ObjectiveAs aging phenomenon is increasingly serious and social endowment is relative lag, family endowment is still important endowment patterns for a period of time in China, and intergenerational economic support has important influence on the elderly health in family pension.Then,what is the Chinese family generation economic support present status? What kind of impact does Intergenerational economic support have to elderly health? If the intergenerational economic support can significantly affect the elderly health, so just what factors influence the intergenerational economic support? This study specific purpose is as follows:1. through the description statistics, describing Chinese family intergenerational economic support and elderly health status and mutual relations; 2. through empirical research, testing the support between the elderly health and two-way causality; 3. through research on the influence of intergenerational economic support on health, discussing how to develop a source of economic support, and to explore the substitution effect of the government transfer payments and the accessibility of medical service in improve the elderly health under the condition of limited domestic economy support, in order to provide certain theoretical support to achieve positive ageing and healthy aging.MethodsData came from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey(CHARLS) which is provided by China center for economic research (CCER) of Peking University. In 2008,the project team conducted polit survey in Zhejiang and Gansu provinces, then conducted tracks in 2012.CHARLS team sampled people over the age of 45 years old that living in Gansu and Zhejiang provinces.2685 persons of 1570 households of 95 community of 32 county/district/villages were sampled in four phases and, a total of 2378 persons were sampled in the tracking including,of which 1287 people that age over 60 years old (2012) were tracked(born after 1952).This study firstly described the situation of intergenerational economic support, and described the relationship between the factors such as the elderly health status and the economic support by Locally weighted regression scatter smoothing (Lowess),and then conducted empirical analysis of economic support from the following three aspects:1. through reviewing literature of the influencing factors of health and economic support, selected independent variables and control variables of regression analysis, and stepwise regression method was used to determine the final regression model; 2. In order to control the hysteresis of health effect of economic support, and the endogenous of economic support and the hierarchy of the factors which influencing the health, multi-level model of two phase data regression analysis was used; 3. Building Heckman multi-level model to explore the influence factors of economic support for the elderly. This research mainly used stata12.0 software for data analysis.Main results1.The health effect of economic support Through stepwise regressing the influence of intergenerational economic support for the elderly health, this research found that the fitness of the model was good and the model was robust. Intra-class correlation coefficient(ICC)of HLM regression of ADL, chronic depression, life satisfaction and self-rated health was 0.3083,0.1342 0.1342,0.3083 and 0.1342, and they all obviously was not equal to zero, which demonstrated that the community factors account for more than 10% difference in the elderly health and it is necessary to adopt the HLM model.ADL regression coefficient on receiving economic support was -0.148, which illustrated that receiving economic support was conducive to improve ADL, but the result did not have statistical significance. ADL regression coefficient on providing economic support was -0.212, and the result had statistical significance at 0.15 level. Chronic disease regression coefficient on receiving economic support was -0.099, which illustrated that receiving economic support was conducive to improve chronic disease, but the result did not have statistical significance. chronic disease regression coefficient on providing economic support was -0.134, and the result had statistical significance at 0.05 level. Receiving economic support can lower the incidence of depression, and the result had statistical significance at 0.1 level; depression regression coefficient on providing economic support was -0.122, and the result had statistical significance at 0.15 level. Receiving economic support can improve the life satisfaction, and the result had statistical significance at 0.1 level; life satisfaction regression coefficient on providing economic support was -0.022, but the result did not have statistical significance. Self-rated health regression coefficient on receiving economic support was -0.017, which illustrated that receiving economic support was conducive to improve self-rated health, but the result did not have statistical significance. Self-rated health regression coefficient on providing economic support was -0.225, and the result had statistical significance at 0.15 level.2. The diversity of health effects of economic support(1) For different parts of China, especially the parts of economic development level existing obvious differenc,economic support had different health effects.Obtaining economic support could improve the ADL level,reduce the incidence of chronic diseases and the incidence of depression of the elderly in Gansu province, but for the elderly in Zhejiang province had the opposite conclusion.Providing economic support for the children could improve the elderly chronic disease incidence in Zhejiang province, but could significantly decrease incidence of elderly chronic diseases in Gansu province.(2) Obtaining economic support could more apparently decrease the incidence of chronic diseases and depression of the elderly from low-income families. Providing economic support was more advantageous to improve the ADL and the depression of the elderly of low-income families, and is more helpful for the improvement of chronic diseases of the the elderly of high-income families. The government transfer payments is more effective to reduce the incidence of ADL and depression of the elderly from low-income families than from higher income family effect.(3) Obtaining economic support could lower the incidence of ADL and depression of the elderly female to a greater degree, and is more higher both in economy and significance than that of the elderly male.But obtaining economic support could more improve the life satisfaction of the elderly male. Providing economic support to their children was more advantageous to improve the health of older female.(4) Obtaining economic support could more effectively lower the incidence of ADL and depression and improve the life satisfaction of the rural elderly than that of the urban elderly, both in terms of economy or in significant ways.Government transfer payments is more obviously to reduce the incidence of ADL and chronic diseases of the rural elderly.(5) Obtaining economic support could more effectively lower the incidence of ADL and chronic diseases and improve the life satisfaction of 60-69-year-old age than that of over 70-year-old. But Obtaining economic support could more lower the incidence of depression of over 70-year-old.(6) Obtaining economic support could more effectively lower the incidence of ADL and depression of the elderly that not in marriage,but there was not obvious effect to the chronic diseases. Obtaining economic support could more improve the life satisfaction of the elderly in marriage. Providing economic support for the children could decrease the incidence of ADL,chronic disease and depression,and could improve the life satisfaction of the elderly in marriage.3. The factors that influencing the intergenerational economic support for the elerly(1)The factors that influencing the probability of geting economic support for the elderly. The elderly that who was poor health,had higher income,had medical insurance and endowment insurance,looked after the grandchildren,living level was low,had more living children, had more children to live near, the elderly and children to contact more, in marriage, better community economy and so on would had the lower probability to receive economic support. The elderly that whose first job nature was worse,had more non-cohabiting children,had more chance to meet their children,whose children revenue was higher, received more economic support in base period, would had the higher probability to receiving economic support.(2)The factors that influencing the scale of geting economic support for the elderly. The elderly that ADL serious, high income, poor self-rated health,having medical insurance and pension insurance.more high living standards,looking after grandchildren, more living children and more chance to meet children,would obtain smaller scale of economic support than other cases.The elderly that chronic diseases and depression were more serious, received more economic support in base period, w first job nature was worse, had more non-cohabiting children and brothers and sisters, had more chance to contact children, the farther away from the children, the higher the children’s income, not in marriage, the rural elderly,the elderly female,the higher degree of education, would obtain larger scale of ecomomic support.4. The diversity of factors of influcing economic support(1) In Zhejiang province, the more severe chronic diseases and depression,the more alive children,the higher income, the more the elderly obtained the economic support.The worse self-rated health,the more non-cohabiting children, the more chance to meet children, looking after grandchildren,the less the elderly obtained the economic support. The scale of the economic support for seniors in marriage was larger than that not in marriage.Under the same case, the situation of getting economic support for the elderly in Gansu province was opposite.(2) For the urban elderly,the worse ADL, the more economic support, but not having significant, while for the rural elderly,the worse ADL, the less economic support, and significant at 0.05 level; The impact of self-rated health to obtaining economic support for the rural elderly was more obvious and more significant than for the urban elderly. The crowding out effect of endowment insurance for urban economic support for elderly, both in extent and significance was much higher than for the rural elderly.The more the urban elderly contact with children, the less economic support they obtained, but the more the rural elderly contact with their children, the more economic support they obtained, and the significance was at the 0.05 level;In city,the elderly male obtained more economic support than the elderly female, and the significance was at the 0.05 level.(3) Health status impacted on the economic support for the elderly who not lived alone, whether from the aspects of degree or significance, was significantly higher than for the solitary elderly. Economic support received by not solitary elderly in marriage was much lower than that of solitary elderly people in marriage; The times of meeting with the children more seriously influenced the elderly who not lived alone to obtain the economic support. In city, not solitary elderly received much more economic support than solitary old people;the elderly female not solitary received much more economic support than solitary old people; For seniors who lived alone,the older the more economic support,for seniors who not lived alone, the older the less economic support.The higher the level of community economic development, the less economic support for seniors who live alone, and the significance was at the 0.05 level.Conclusions and RecommendationsAccording to the results, this study came to the followingconclusions:1. The two-way economic support was beneficial to the physical and mental health of the elderly, on the old was not necessarily a bad thing.On the basis of considering economic endogenous and time lag between support and health problems, this study found that getting the intergenerational economic support would have beneficial effects on health, providing economic support for the children to be able to improve the elderly life satisfaction, but for different groups of the elderly, this influence did not have consistency. Therefore, on the old was wether reduced the elderly life satisfaction, cannot treated as the same, the feeling of the different groups were different.2. The community factor is an important intermediary variable of economic support health effect.Through the calculation values of the ICC of HLM empty model, this study found that community factor could explain more than 10% of the differences of chronic dieases, ADL, depression, life satisfaction and self-rated health, and had statistical significance, showed that community factors were the important factors that affect the elderly health. The economic support often influenced the health through community health services accessibility, the abundance of elderly community social capital, the elderly life pressure buffer achieved by community culture.3. The health effects of economic support had differences such as regional, urban and rural, age and gender,etc.Through sample regression analysis,this study found that the health effects of economic support existed differences in gender, urban and rural,age, marital status and economic level, etc. For the rural elderly, the elderly female,not in marriage and the low-income elderly elderly, economic support would produce more marginal health effect.Often visiting the elderly would reduce the size of the economic support, which showed that daily care had substitution effect on the economic support, but emotional communication such as writing letters, telephone call did not reduce the size of the economic support.Economic support motivation existed regional differences.In general, Chinese family provide economic support has the characteristics of altruistic motives. In economy developed areas, exchange motivation is more obvious, and in economy backward region altruistic motives is more likely to be. So that government raised the economy income or source of the elderly in the economy backward areas might reduce the pension pressure of young people in the region.4. The government transfer payments, pension insurance,medical insurance had crowding out effect for economic support.Regression results of this study shows that the government transfer payment had important and significant influence on the health of the elderly.The government transfer payment, pension insurance,medical insurance had crowding out effect for economic support.It is to say that providing such social security for the elderly was able to decrease the economic support size for the elderly decreases, reduce the reliance on their children’s economic support, thus reduce the pension pressure of children.Based on the above research conclusion, puting forward the following recommendations:1. Deeply recognizing the importance of family economic support for healthy agingDue to advocating filial piety culture in China, obtaining economic support from children is not only beneficial to the physical health of elderly, but also will be greatly increased the life satisfaction.Government should design the corresponding preferential policies aimed at families with elderly people, to raise the income level of children of the elderly, to consolidate and strengthen the basis of family pension, to provide policy support for family intergenerational economic support, such as designing income tax preferential policies directed at young people needing to support the elderly.2. Increasing the size of the government transfer payments as well as improving the coverage of social securityIf their children have difficulty to provide economic support to the elderly, the government should increase economy help to the difficult family. But because of existing the differences of economic support health effect in urban and rural, limited transfer payment should be allocated to the the elderly who has more prominent health effect, avoid egalitarianism.In Gansu, economy is relatively backward, children providing financial support is for altruistic motives, if the elderly can get government help, it can reduce the financial burden on children’s pension.Government should gradually perfect the old social security system, improve the level of security, for improving the medical insurance,pension insurance and other social security level and coverage can squeeze out part of the family economic support, reduce the difficulty of family endowment.3. Giving full play to the role of community in healthy agingAttaching great importance to the old people health and health care needs, establishing and improving the elderly health and support system, improving the community health service level can improve the utilization rate of medical service for the elderly. Increasing the elderly activity center, etc., let old people enjoy more social capital, enrich spiritual life in the elderly.Improving the community endowment service function, forming the culture atmosphere of active aging, alleviating the psychological pressure of old people.4.Healthy aging related policy should adjust measures to local conditionsThis study found that both health effect of economic support and its influence factors had differences in regional, in urban and rural areas, etc. So for the young people whose life pressure is more, if their parents have life self-care ability, there is not necessity to use law enforcement to go home often or ban children on the old, needing to consider the differences in regional,in urban and rural and family economic conditions, avoiding one size fitting all.
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