| Research BackgroundWith the social development and economic improvement, there is great improvement of medical level, living standard and health consciousness. Combined with the universal health care implemented in almost all over China, the average life expectancy is extended obviously. Besides, long implementation of the family planning, the increase of life pressure and change of traditional concept directly affect the willingness of people to breed. Chinese families present the mode of "4+2+1". The decline of birth rate and substantial increase of life span accelerated the fast development of aging population in China. According to the forecast of United Nations and Chinese Aging Committee, the proportion of elderly population over 60 years old will exceed 20% around 2025. The social morphology of "aging before getting rich" is obvious. Demographic dividend is about to disappear, which will restrict China's economic and social sustainable development.Urbanization is developing rapidly. Lifestyle changes a lot. The aging problem is increasingly serious. The phenomenon of "empty nesters" is particularly noteworthy. In 2015, national commission of aging problem indicated that the rate of elderly empty nesters in large-and medium-sized cities of China had reached 70%. According to experts'prediction, China's aging population will be about 300 million and the rate of empty-nest families may reach 90% in 2030. It indicates that empty-nest families will be the main mode of elderly families in the future. In the view of the number, proportion and developing trend of "empty nesters" all over the world, the emergency of "empty nesters" is the result of various factors in modern society. Personally, the elders have changed their thought and do not want to burden their children. Besides, they have strong feelings of their original living places. From the perspective of family, elders have to live on themselves as the mode of "4+2+1" and the change of their children's lifestyle. From the perspective of society, regional development is not balanced and urbanization develops fast, which result in the labor transfer. The one-child go out to seek employment and development because of big pressure to support their parents.Empty nesters face many difficulties. How to make them spend their remaining years comfortably has become a social proposition to be solved in China. This problem challenges the construction of elderly care service system and needs to be solved from the perspective of harmonious social development. Currently, academic circles have reached broad consensus that elderly care includes family supporting, home-based (community-based) elderly care and institutional elderly care. All of these three modes have advantages and disadvantages. Combined with national cultural tradition and basic national condition, the construction of function-perfect elderly care pattern should be based on family supporting, develop home-based elderly care and extend and rich family function by community, and provide professional care with institutional elderly care. To some extent, this will ease the impact of aging population on economy, society and family. Based on different elderly care requirements of different groups, some new models emerge quietly, such as cohabitation elderly care, huddle elderly care, house-for-elderly care and saving elderly care etc. They give effective complement to the family supporting, home-based (community-based) elderly care and institutional elderly care.Different "empty nesters" have different requirements and willingness. Different elderly care modes have their own characteristics and suitable groups. The requirement of "empty nesters" mainly includes economic support, life care and spiritual comfort. Factors such as household income involved in economic support; daily life ability and physical condition involved in life care; spiritual solace related to couple accompany and social support. Among them, the problem of couple accompany is more prominent. Because of the separation or death of a spouse, the elderly care problem of "empty nesters" who live alone becomes a hot spot of concern. They have their own characteristics of elderly care willingness and requirement. The analysis of factors affecting the choice tendency of elderly care mode will accelerate the improvement of elderly care service system to meet increasingly diversified and multi-level requirements of "empty nesters" elderly care service. This has become an urgent task in the current and future and has very important guiding significance to achieve the social development goal of "elderly will be looked after properly" and "build a well-off society in an all-round way".Research PurposeA total of 1067 "empty nesters", who are more than 60 years old, were recruited randomly from Shandong Province. The study used questionnaires to get information of elderly care demand. We then apply chi-square test and logistic regression analysis to do the intentional analysis of family elderly care and institutional elderly care and apply single factor analysis and multiple factors analysis of factors affecting institutional elderly care demand of "empty nesters" who live alone or in couple to discuss the inner relationship between elderly care service demand and basic information, family characteristics and social economic characteristics of "empty nesters". Based on these results, we propose the relevant policy and suggestions to provide a reference for the policy setting of elderly care service and establishment of elderly care agency.Research MethodsThis study recruited "empty nesters" aged 60 years old and above according to inclusive criteria and exclusive criteria in Jinan HuaiYin District, Liaocheng DongChangFu District and Zibo ZhangDian District. The study applied questionnaires and face-to-face interviews to get data of baseline information (age, sex, education, years of empty-nest, live alone or not), children state (number of children, get along with children,voice frequency), health state (self-rated health state, daily activity ability, speaking problem, listening problem), financial situation (objectively real family income and subjectively self-reported economic state), social adaptability (relationship with neighborhood and participation in community activities), and etc.The researchers inquired and explained the questionnaire item by item to make sure all subjects understand the question and confirm the answers. Recycling questionnaire and options of the questions were encoded for data entry. We applied "back to back", a double entry method, to collect data and establish Epidata database. Consistency check was used to ensure the reality and effect of the data. SPSS 19.0 was used to do the statistic analysis. We did statistical description on general data of "empty nesters", with counting data expressed by percentage. Chi-square test was used to obtain the difference of elderly care willingness from different "empty nesters". Logistic regression analysis was used to obtain the factors affecting elderly care willingness. During the whole research process, quality control was used on data acquisition, encoding and statistic analysis to ensure the reality and effect of results and conclusions.ResultsFrom the general data, "empty nesters" aged over 70 years old account for half above. Education degree is generally low. Most of the empty nest status is more than 3 years. More than half of the household income is more than 30 thousand RMB and self-rate family economy being on the average. Most "empty nesters" have 3 or more children, and self-rate good relationship with their children.74.41% of the surveyed "empty nesters" have chronic disease, and nearly a third of elders suffer 2 or more kinds of chronic diseases. More than half of the elders have good relationships with neighborhood, but most of them do not take part in community activities.From the perspective of factors affecting "empty nesters", tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live alone is 2.44 times than that of elders who live in couple. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who have middle school, high school or above education degree is 1.77 and 1.27 times respectively than that of elders who have primary school education. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who have revenue of 10-30 thousand and 30 thousand above is 2.52 and 2.20 times separately than that of elders who have less than 10 thousand revenue.From the perspective of factors affecting "empty nesters" who live alone, tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders aged 70-80 years old and 80 above is 2.09 and 7.09 times respectively than that of elders aged 60-70 years old. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live alone and have 2 or more than 3 children is 0.65 and 0.086 times respectively than that of elders who have only one child. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live alone and have a bad or general relationship with their children is 2.78 and 6.4 times respectively than that of elders who have a good relationship with children. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live alone and get ADL grade 2 or 3 is 1.04 and 6.65 times respectively than that of elders who get ADL grade 1.From the perspective of factors affecting "empty nesters" who live in couple, tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders aged 70-80 years old and 80 above is 0.53 and 0.30 times respectively than that of elders aged 60-70 years old. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live in couple and have 2 or more than 3 children is 0.45 and 0.38 times respectively than that of elders who have only one child. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live in couple and have a bad or general relationship with children is 2.99 and 1.15 times respectively than that of elders who have a good relationship with children. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live in couple and get ADL grade 2 or 3 is 1.69 and 2.73 times respectively than that of elders who get ADL grade 1. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live in couple and have normal hearing function is 2.03 times than that of elders who have hearing disorders. Tendency to choose institution elderly care of elders who live in couple with empty nest status being more than 10 years is 2.48 times than that of elders with less than 5 years.ConclusionIn Conclusion, empty nesters tend to choose family supporting. With further analysis, the proportion of empty nesters to choos institution eldly care is larger than that of none-empty nesters. As a whole, education and income level of empty nesters are related factors of the willingness to choose institution elderly care. For "empty nesters" who live alone, age, the number of children, relationship with children and daily activity ability are related factors of the willingness to choose institution elderly care. For "empty nesters" who live in couple, age, the number of children, relationship with children, daily activity ability, income level, listening and speaking function and empty nest time are related factors of the willingness to choose institution elderly care. Meanwhile, the common educational level of "empty nesters" is low. Most suffer from chronic diseases and have been empty nest for a long time. The access of social support is simplex. The problem of psychological needs does not allow to ignore. |
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