The Relationship between Socioeconomic Status, Mental Health, and Need for Long-Term Services and Supports among the Chinese Elderly in Shandong Province—A Cross-Sectional Study

Fanlei Kong, Lingzhong Xu, Mei Kong, Shixue Li, Chengchao Zhou, Jiajia Li, Long Sun and Wenzhe Qin
Additional contact information
Fanlei Kong: Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan 250012, China
Lingzhong Xu: Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan 250012, China
Mei Kong: Research Center of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Shixue Li: Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan 250012, China
Chengchao Zhou: Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan 250012, China
Jiajia Li: Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan 250012, China
Long Sun: Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan 250012, China
Wenzhe Qin: Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan 250012, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: This study aims to clarify the association between socioeconomic status (SES), mental health, and the need for long-term services and support (NLTSS) of the Chinese elderly, and further, to provide evidence-based suggestions for the development of the long-term services and support (LTSS) system in China. A cross-sectional survey using a multi-stage random sampling method was conducted in Shandong Province, China, in 2017. Data were collected from seniors aged over 60 years old through questionnaires by face-to face interviews. A total of 7070 subjects were included in the final database (40.3% male and 59.7% female). A chi-square test analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to explore the relationship between SES, mental health, and NLTSS for both male and female elderly people. The SEM analysis showed that mental health was significantly and negatively associated with NLTSS for both male elderly and female elderly, and it was slightly stronger among the male elderly. A significant and negative relationship was observed between SES and NLTSS for both genders, and the association was stronger among the female elderly. SES exerted a positive effect on mental health for both male and female elderly people, and a slightly stronger effect was found among the male elderly. Advice for the development of a LTSS system in China was given based on the above results.

Keywords: socioeconomic status; mental health; need for long-term services and support; Chinese elderly; structural equation modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/4/526/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/4/526/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:4:p:526-:d:205382

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().