Catastrophic Health Expenditure and Mental Health in the Older Chinese Population: The Moderating Role of Social Health Insurance

Wei Yang and Bo Hu

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2022, vol. 77, issue 1, 160-169

Abstract: ObjectivesCatastrophic health expenditure (CHE) has considerable effects on household living standards, but little is known regarding the relationships between CHE and people’s mental health. Using China as an example, this study examines the association between CHE and mental health and investigates whether the association differs between those with and without social health insurance (SHI).MethodsThe data came from 3 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011, 2013, and 2015, N = 13,166). We focused on older people aged 60 and older. We built panel data regression and quantile regression models to analyze the data.ResultsIncurring CHE is significantly associated with poor mental health. The association is weakened among older people receiving SHI, which indicates that SHI has a protective effect. Moreover, the association between CHE and mental health and the protective effect of SHI are stronger among those with mild or moderate mental health problems.DiscussionOur findings provide empirical evidence that encourages the integration of psychologically informed approaches in health services. We also urge governments in low- and middle-income countries to consider more generous health financing mechanisms for older people with greater health care needs.

Keywords: Catastrophic health expenditure; China; Mental health; Older people; Social health insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbab130 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:1:p:160-169.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().