Citation

Bai Y, Bian F, Zhang L, Cao Y. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020; 17(6): e2004.

Affiliation

The Department of yueming Cao is Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph17062004

PMID

32197415

Abstract

With the dramatic trend of global aging, the physical and mental health of the rural elderly has attracted significant attention. Social support plays an important role in improving the health of the elderly. However, assessing the impact of social support on the physical and mental health of the elderly is challenging in rural China. This paper analyzes the impact of social support on the physical and mental health of the Chinese rural elderly based on data collected from households and village cadres. Probit, Oprobit, and ordinary least squares (OLS) are used to estimate these effects. The results show that 24.3% of the rural elderly are in bad physical health, and 32.9% of them are depressed. Physical and mental health is worse among the female elderly and among those who are in western provinces. Having pensions, taking care of grandchildren, and communicating with children by telephone are shown to significantly improve the mental health of the rural elderly. The government could promote the mental health of the rural elderly by improving public health services, increasing pensions, providing free mobile phones to elderly people in poverty, and advocating that the younger generation provide emotional support.

Language: en

Keywords

China; depression; physical health; rural elderly; social support