Southeast University Reports Findings in Science (Impact of long-term care insurance on health inequality in older adults in China based on the concentration index approach): Science

2023 APR 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Daily China News -- New research on Science is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating from Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Several studies have shown that social security would reduce health inequalities. However, little was known about the relationship between long-term care insurance and health inequality.”

Funders for this research include China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Ministry of Education, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Southeast University, “We aimed to evaluate the impact of long-term care insurance on health status and health inequality in older adults using a nationally representative cohort. Based on four waves of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2018), we used the staggered difference in difference (DID) design with the order probit regression models and the concentration index approach as well as decomposition analysis to assess the contribution of long-term care insurance towards residents’ health status and health inequality in older adults aged 65 y. We further used the semi-parametric DID model for robustness testing. Long-term care insurance demonstrated its role, improving self-assessed health in the study population (bcoefficient: 0.090, 95% CI 0.087 to 0.092, p<0.001). The estimation results of the semi-parametric DID were consistent with those of the staggered DID. The income-related health concentration index was 0.0005, having a contribution rate of 1.639% to health inequality in older adults. Decomposition analysis revealed that different policies and residential areas were more influential on the observed health inequalities. The findings implied that long-term care insurance has widened the health inequality while improving health status in older adults.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Additional investment in more comprehensive insurance coverage and increased accessibility to enhance implementation of long-term care insurance is warranted to close the gap.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Impact of long-term care insurance on health inequality in older adults in China based on the concentration index approach. International Health, 2023. International Health can be contacted at: Oxford Univ Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; International Health - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-health/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Lijun Fan, School of Public Health, Southeast University, 87 Dingjiaqiao, Gulou district, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China. Additional authors for this research include Yong Tian, Menghan Zhou and Wei Du.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihad025. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal International Health is: Oxford Univ Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England.

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