Study On The Current Situation, The Trend And Strategies Of The Oldest-Old In China

The oldest-old which is the weakest group of the old is that kind of groupthat needs the help mostly and has more difficulties. Therefore, it is not onlythe need of building up an all-around society but also the necessity of thesocial development that we should deal with the problem well.Due to the lack of the data of the oldest-old in China and the difficulty ofcollecting data, the study of the oldest-old is just a new field in China, and it isstill blank in some aspects. This paper tries to make analyses of the oldest-oldin China in terms of the current situation and the trend of the oldest-old inChina with the purpose of finding out the problems of the oldest-old andgiving some immaturely proposals.The result of the study shows that since the founding of People'sRepublic of China, the oldest-old has been increasing at a high rate. On theage structure, most of the oldest-old belongs to the range between 80 and 89;on the sex structure, the sexual rate of the oldest-old is very low with thehigher rate of female;on the geographical structure, most of the oldest-old areliving in the unbalanced country sides. In basic, the majority of the presentsingle oldest-old have got married, but many of them received low educationbecause of the historical limitation. Besides, most of the oldest-old suffer a lotfrom diseases due to their poor physical conditions. However, according tosome researches, many oldest-old in China can take care of themselves verywell. What's more important, people in the country do better than those in thetowns, male than female. The oldest-old in China, especially those in thecountry are depended on their family members mostly in the aspects ofattendance, the source of living, and housing.Besides, this paper is based on the data of the population censes in 2000with the total fertility rate as the controlling parameter, using PEOPLE andEXCELL to make an analysis of the trend of the oldest-old in China. Theresult of this analysis demonstrates that the oldest-old is increasing at thefastest rate in China, which has become a block in the development of China.The main problems existing in the oldest-old are: firstly, theincompatibility between the high rate increase and the social development;secondly, the low rate between female and male with more problemsconcerning female;thirdly, the oldest-old in trouble in the country posses ahigh proportion;fourthly, there is a great challenge in taking care of theoldest-old;fifthly, many of the oldest-old are lack of high quality of spirituallife because of the low education. Besides, there are also problems in theaspects of spouse, physical conditions and so on.At last, there are some immaturely proposals for us to deal with theproblems of the oldest-old in China: the first is enhancing a sustaineddevelopment of the economy;secondly, making some feasible laws andsystems;thirdly, cultivating the all-around oldest-old awareness;fourthly,making the age-providing system and medical system that has Chinesecharacteristics;fifthly, we should pay more attention to the female oldest-oldin the country. Of course, there are some other measures, such as modifyingthe present birth policy, developing the insurance which suit to the oldest-old.