[Effect of age-friendly social and family care environment on the long-term care services for the disabled elderly people].

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the effect of age-friendly social and family care environment on the long-term care (LTC) services for the disabled elderly people.

METHODS

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted among disabled elderly people in three cities of Zhejiang province from June to August 2022, involving 311 subjects from Ningbo city (LTC service insurance pilot site, insured group) and 542 subjects from Hangzhou and Quzhou cities (uninsured group). The service provisions, including ensuring daily activities, preventive healthcare, and satisfying spiritual comfort, were compared among the groups. The family friendly care environment was evaluated with the Family Function Scale and assistance of daily activities, financial support and emotional comfort. The social friendly care environment was measured with the revised WHO recommended age-friendly city environmental framework, including accessibility guarantee environment, information dissemination environment, social participant environment, and life security environment. After controlling for covariates such as sociodemographic, elderly care status, and health risk characteristics, the impact of environment on the effectiveness of service provision of LTC insurance was explored by multiple logistic regression analysis. The mediating and moderating effects were tested to explore the role of age-friendly care environment. A fixed effects model was used to test the service provision effects of LTC insurance policy.

RESULTS

Disabled elderly with LTC insurance had a higher proportion of their preventive health care and spiritual comfort needs met. Additionally, a multifactorial analysis found a significant positive association between LTC insurance and meeting the spiritual comfort needs. Compared with insured group (Ningbo city), disabled elderly people in Hangzhou urban area (=0.45, 95%:0.27-0.74, <0.01) and Quzhou rural area (=0.21, 95%:0.12-0.37, <0.01) were more likely to feel unsatisfied with spiritual comfort. The results of mediation analysis showed that the scores of accessibility guarantee environment (=1.22, 95%:1.02-1.45, <0.05), information dissemination environment (=1.19, 95%:1.02-1.39, <0.05), and social participation environment (=1.40, 95%:1.17-1.67, <0.01) in a socially friendly care environment were positively correlated with the satisfaction rate of mental comfort services. The results of the moderation effect analysis indicated that a socially friendly care environment (=1.46, 95%:1.16-1.84, <0.01) could compensate for the difference in effectiveness between insured (Ningbo) and uninsured (Hangzhou and Quzhou) areas of LTC insurance. A fixed effect model confirmed the policy chain of LTC insurance policy-social friendly care environment-mental health service satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

The implementation of LTC insurance has improved service accessibility, making disabled elderly people feel "seen and valued", and generating psychological and spiritual satisfaction. Accelerating the establishment and improvement of the LTC insurance system requires systematic design, especially emphasizing the supportive role of a socially friendly care environment, and promoting it in urban and rural areas according to the local conditions.