Foster care experiences during childhood and health during older age: Evidence from China.

OBJECTIVE: Improving the health of older individuals is the primary approach to dealing with the challenges of an aging population. Experiences during childhood can have a continual influence on individual health conditions. Consequently, understanding whether foster care experiences during childhood influence an individual's health during older age is relevant. METHOD: Data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, 2014, were collected. The influence of foster care experiences during childhood on health during older age was analyzed using the least-squares method. The mediating effects of childhood health status, education opportunities, and nutritional level were analyzed using the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) method. RESULTS: Foster care experience during childhood was associated with reduced self-rated health status during older age due to adverse effects on (a) childhood health status, (b) childhood education opportunities, and (c) childhood nutritional level. CONCLUSIONS: The influences of early life factors on the health status of older adults should be analyzed from the perspective of the lifecycle to provide positive interventions for health improvement. The outcomes from such a study could help to improve the health condition of elderly citizens. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The impacts of urban-rural integrated medical insurance on the quality of labor supply for migrant workers in China.

BACKGROUND: The transformation from the quantity of labor supply to the quality of labor supply is an important measure to improve the self-development of migrant workers. METHOD: Based on the 2018 China Floating Population Dynamic Monitoring Survey data, this paper uses the 2SLS model based on instrumental variable estimation to analyze the impact of urban and rural integrated medical insurance on the quality of migrant workers' labor supply. RESULTS: The study found that: First, urban and rural integrated medical insurance can significantly improve the quality of labor supply for migrant workers. Even with different instrumental variables and the use of propensity score matching for counterfactual inferences, the findings remain robust. Second, the impact of urban-rural integrated medical insurance on the quality of labor supply for migrant workers has nonlinear characteristics. At the low quantile, the impact of urban-rural integrated medical insurance on the quality of labor supply for migrant workers showed a downward trend, but with the increase of the quantile, the impact of urban and rural integrated medical insurance continued to increase, showing a U-shaped trend. CONCLUSION: Urban-rural integrated medical insurance can not only directly reduce the labor time of migrant workers and ease the labor burden of migrant workers, but also indirectly improve the quality of labor supply for migrant workers through the intermediary role of promoting the availability of public services such as family contracted doctor services and health education.

How does digital life influence the health service use among rural residents? Evidence from China.

BACKGROUND: The Healthy China strategy is an important development objective of the 14th Five-Year Plan and Vision 2035 in China, while health service use in rural China has been a weak link in this strategy. OBJECTIVE: Nowadays, people's health service use will be influenced by digital technology due to the arrival of the Digital Age, and that is the reason why our interest is to discuss the effect of digital life on health service use among rural residents. METHODS: We use the data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2020 to examine the effect of digital life on health service use among rural residents, and we use Instrumental Variables method to control the endogenous problem and use KHB model to discuss the mechanism of this effect. RESULTS: It was found that digital life has increased the health service use among rural residents significantly, and this result has been verified by robust test and Instrumental Variables method. Besides, digital life can increase health service use through the information channel effect and the health literacy effect indirectly. Moreover, digital life has a more significant impact on the residents with low social capital, low physical capital and low social trust, which represents the inclusivity of digital life. CONCLUSION: The results of our paper will be helpful to examine the effect of the digital policy on promoting the health service use in rural China, and our findings will provide evidence of how to use digital life to enhance health service use among rural residents. Based on this, the government should take measures to eliminate the digital divide between urban and rural areas by promoting the level of digital life among rural residents, paying more attention to the digital literacy development among them, and forging ahead toward the great goal of the Healthy China under the Digital Age.

The impact of self-employment on mental health of the younger elderly in China.

BACKGROUND: With the prolongation of the life expectancy of the Chinese population and the intensification of the aging process of the population, the mental health problems of the elderly have become increasingly prominent. This study aims to explore whether self-employment can promote and how to promote the mental health of the elderly. METHOD: Based on the 2018 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS) data, this paper uses OLS model and KHB method to verify the impact of self-employment on the mental health of the younger elderly and its mechanism. RESULTS: The results indicate that self-employment can significantly reduce the depression tendency of the younger elderly and promote their mental health. Heterogeneity analysis shows that self-employment has a more significant positive impact on the mental health of the younger elderly who are self-rated healthy, free of chronic diseases and low-level medical service utilization. The mechanism shows that self-employment can indirectly improve the mental health of the younger elderly through income growth effect and self-worth realization effect, in which the self-worth realization effect is greater than the economic effect. It illustrates that with the development of China's economy, the elderly are pursuing more intrinsic values brought by self-employment than economic benefits. CONCLUSION: In view of the above research results, it is suggested to encourage the elderly to actively participate in social activities, provide policy support for the younger elderly to engage in self-employment, increase government support as well as health guarantee level, and improve the subjective initiative of the elderly to participate in self-employment, so that the society can truly realize the healthy aging of "being useful and productive for the elderly".

The Impact of Public Health Education on Migrant Workers' Medical Service Utilization.

Based on the dynamic monitoring survey data of China's migrant population (CMDS) in 2017, this study analyzes the impact of public health education on migrant workers' medical service utilization. The study found that public health education can significantly promote the utilization of migrant workers' medical services and has a greater effect on the older generation groups, those who received secondary and higher education, and those working in first-tier cities. By distinguishing different types of public health education, it is found that smoking control education has the most obvious effect. Further differentiating disease types, the study found that the promotion effect of receiving occupational disease education is the highest, while the effect of receiving STD/AIDS education is relatively low. The mechanism test indicates that public health education has significantly improved migrant workers' utilization of medical services by influencing their health literacy, social network, and psychological integration.

Effects of social assistance on self-rated health.

Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data in 2018, medical assistance and life assistance have significant negative influences on self-rated health, found via an empirical analysis based on the Oprobit model. Such negative influences are robust based on the substitution of explained variables and propensity score matching. It can be found from a heterogeneity analysis that the negative influences of medical assistance on self-rated health are more significant in urban residents and residents in Central China and East China. Meanwhile, negative influences of life assistance on self-rated health are more significant in urban residents, and residents in Central China, East China, and Northeast China. This study provides empirical evidence to improve the health of residents by using medical assistance and life assistance accurately and offers important policy enlightenments to formulate appropriate social assistance policies.

Farming experience, personal characteristics, and entrepreneurial decisions of urban residents: Empirical evidence from China.

Entrepreneurship is an important way to provide solutions for social employment problems. Using data from the 2016 China Labor Force Dynamic Survey (CLDS), we explore the influence of farming experience on urban residents' entrepreneurial decisions at the theoretical and empirical levels. A Probit model with instrumental variables method was used to analyze the influence of farming experience on urban residents' entrepreneurial decisions, while a mediating effect model was used to test its channels of action. The results show that: (1) farming experience can contribute to the entrepreneurial decision of urban residents relative to those without experience in farming. To overcome possible endogeneity issues, an Eprobit model based on the estimation of instrumental variables was used for testing. (2) Heterogeneity tests based on age, city type, and physical capital found that this effect was more significant in urban residents with non-capital cities, middle-aged groups, and high-material capital. (3) Farming experience indirectly drives entrepreneurial decisions through the mediating role of promoting positive personality traits, such as "optimism" and "mutual aid consciousness." Therefore, the farming experience has a positive effect on urban residents' entrepreneurial decisions and helps to understand the deeper influence of micro-individual characteristics on entrepreneurial decisions in the urbanization process.

Self-employment and health inequality of migrant workers.

BACKGROUND: Self-employment is one of the most common forms of employment for migrant workers in China. However, migrant workers' lifestyle and behavior, as well as health disparities among them, would be impacted by self-employment. This research aims to explore the mechanism and group differences of the effect of self-employment on health inequality among Chinese migrant workers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To explore the effect of self-employment on health inequalities among migrant workers, this research uses the data from the 2018 China Migrant Workers Dynamic Monitoring Survey, and the RIF-I-OLS decomposition method. RESULTS: We find that self-employment will reduce the health inequality of Chinese migrant workers significantly, especially among migrant workers with low education, low income, and low social integration. A further examination reveals that self-employment can directly promote the self-rated health of migrant workers. Additionally, it indirectly alleviates the health inequality among migrant workers by mediating effect of expanding access to public welfare, such as by establishing health records and strengthening health education. CONCLUSION: The government should permit and encourage migrant workers to engage in self-employment. It is necessary to provide public services such as health education, health records, and health rights for migrant workers, and focus on the employment of migrant workers in city, especially those with low income and low education. we believe that measures should be taken to enhance migrant workers' sense of belonging in urban China Only on this basis can health inequality among migrant workers be truly reduced.

Can closed-off management in communities alleviate the psychological anxiety and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of individuals infected with the COVID-19 has been increasing worldwide, posed a substantial threat to mental health. Therefore, discovering the means for blocking the transmission path of COVID-19 and improving mental health is of great significance. Based on a survey on the life of urban and rural residents in China (in 2020), the study applied the least squares method to analyse the effect of closed-off management on the psychological anxiety and psychological stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the bootstrap decomposition method was used to test for the mediating effects of satisfaction with and confidence in pandemic prevention. The study found that closed-off management in communities exerted a negative effect on psychological anxiety and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, satisfaction with and confidence in pandemic prevention played a mediating role on the psychological anxiety and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, closed-off management in communities will not only prevent the spread of the COVID-19, but also improve satisfaction with and confidence in pandemic prevention and control. Furthermore, it will alleviate the psychological anxiety and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.