| The aging of the population has become one of the basic national conditions of our country.Affected by urbanization and population mobility,the characteristics of empty nesting of the elderly in rural areas are obvious,and a serious phenomenon of "urban and rural inversion" has appeared.In order to cope with the increasingly severe population aging problem,my country has issued a number of policy documents to promote the development of rural elderly care services,but they have little effect,especially the slow advancement of market-based elderly care service supply in rural areas,and new types of elderly care service models such as rural mutual happiness homes.Supply efficiency is low.Fundamentally speaking,problems in the supply of rural elderly care services stem from the mismatch between the supply and demand of elderly care services,or the imbalance between supply and demand.Clarifying the rural elderly’s demand for elderly care services and its generation mechanism is the basis for solving the problem of the imbalance between the supply and demand of elderly care services in rural areas.Based on a sample survey of rural elderly in Shaanxi Province,this study attempts to empirically explore this generation mechanism.The study found that the rural elderly have relatively low levels of demand for elderly care services,and there are also varying degrees of demand for different elderly care services.The rural elderly have the most prominent demand for medical and nursing services,and their demand for life care services and spiritual comfort services is far lower than the demand for medical and nursing services.The life cycle and insufficient family security are the main generation mechanisms for the demand for elderly care services in rural areas,and the life cycle is the basic mechanism.The more towards the later stage of the life cycle,the higher the rural elderly’s demand for life care and medical care,while the demand for spiritual comfort has not changed much.In family security,having a spouse can reduce the rural elderly’s need for living care,but cannot reduce the need for spiritual comfort and medical care;children can also reduce the rural elderly’s demand for elderly care services,and this is mainly reflected in the relationship with the son and the residence.In terms of methods,the number of sons does not have a significant effect,but the increase in the number of daughters will reduce the rural elderly’s demand for spiritual comfort services.In addition,at different stages of the life cycle of the rural elderly,the impact of family security on the demand for elderly care services is different.Compared with the elderly,the demand for elderly care services of the young people is more due to the lack of family security.Based on this,the research puts forward suggestions for the development of rural elderly care services: First,change the concept and pay attention to the elderly from the perspective of the whole life cycle.Second,to consolidate the basic status of rural families for the aged;Third,the construction of high quality rural social security system;Fourth,the construction of the Association for the Aged will help the healthy development of old-age care. |
