Research On The Health Status Of The Urban Elderly In China And Its Influencing Factors

Health is the basic premise of all life activities and is the basis for mankind to realize its own value and create value.At present,China’s aging process is intensifying,and the elderly have limited health resources to obtain.With the intensifying process of aging,the level of urbanization in China is also rapidly increasing.However,China has not fully considered the health and convenience of urban elderly with the rapid urbanization process.Therefore,the health of the urban elderly is worthy of attention,which is of great significance for improving the health of the urban elderly,upgrading the national welfare system,and building a healthy China.In this paper,theoretical analysis and empirical analysis are combined to use.In terms of the theoretical analysis,the basic theoretical analysis is conducted from the perspectives of social capital theory,Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and health needs theory to explore the health need,health resources and health evaluation standards of the elderly,and to explore the impact of income level,education level,marital status,and endowment mode on the health status of urban elderly.In terms of empirical research,this paper uses data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS),while factor analysis is used to extract common factors from related indicators,and the urban elderly’s health level is evaluated from the perspectives of living ability,mental health and physical health.Based on these three dimensions,a comprehensive evaluation index for the health of the elderly in the city is constructed.Four sets of ordered data were obtained for valuing the health of urban elderly people.Then,this paper uses the ologit model to focus on the impact of income level,education level,marital status,and endowment mode on the health status of urban elderly.Then,the method of replacing variables and lagging related variables is used to solve the endogeneity and to test the stability of the empirical model.The result of research has showed that a shattered marriage status like divorce or separation and an endowment method of the old-age self-provision can adversely affect the mental health of the elderly.The relationship between income level and the overall health status of the elderly in the city is not significant,but income level is positively related to the physical health of the elderly in the city.From the perspective of education level,urban elderly people with primary and middle school education background generally have better overall health condition,living ability and mental health status than those without any education.The urban elderly who have accepted university education or higher level do not have a significant better health condition than those uneducated.On the basis of related research and the above empirical results,this article puts forward relevant constructive suggestions from the perspective of promoting education equity and building lifelong education concepts among the people,improving health awareness,improving the income distribution system and medical security system and upgrading the old-age care or endowment mode in China under the background of urbanization and aging.It’s significant to use a serious of targeted measures to improve the health level of the urban elderly.