Study on the measurement of coupling and coordinated development level between China's internet and elderly care services and its influencing factors.

BACKGROUND: With the intensification of China's aging population, the demand for elderly care services has become increasingly prominent. At the same time, rapid development of internet technology provides more convenience and possibilities for the elderly. However, the coordinated development between the internet and elderly care services still faces challenges. This study aims to measure the level of coupling and coordinated development between the internet and elderly care services in China, and analyze the influencing factors, in order to provide reference for promoting elderly care services. METHODS: In this paper, the entropy method and coupling coordination degree model were used to measure the coupling coordination development index of the internet and elderly care services in China from 2012 to 2021. In addition, considering that the coordinated development between the two is affected by many factors, the Tobit model was used to analyze the main factors affecting the integration of the internet and elderly care services. RESULTS: (1) The coupling and coordination of the Internet and senior care services is in its infancy, but the coupling and coordination of the two is on the rise, and there is still a lot of room for development in the future. (2) In terms of time scale, the coupling coordination development level between the internet and elderly care services in China has gone through three stages of "disorder recession-transition coordination-coordinated development". (3) In terms of influencing factors, government management ability has a more positive impact on the development of the integration of the Internet and senior care services, financial support, scientific and technological investment and the level of innovation play a mild pulling role, while the level of informatization to a certain extent restricts the level of integration of the Internet and senior care services. CONCLUSION: In order to promote the coordinated development of China's Internet and senior care services, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the current situation and development space of China's Internet and senior care services coupling coordination degree, accurately grasp the dynamic trend of China's Internet and senior care services coupling and coordinated development, promote the stage of leapfrogging, and fully consider the influencing factors, so as to realize the optimal allocation of policies and resources. These measures will help to promote a more coordinated and sustainable development of the internet and elderly care services in China.

Getting ready for reduced donor dependency: the co-financing of family planning commodities.

Family planning (FP) programmes in low and lower-middle income countries are confronting the dual impact of reduced external donor commitments and stagnant or reduced domestic financing, worsened by economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-financing-a donor-government agreement to jointly fund aspects of a programme, with transition towards the government assuming increasing responsibility for total cost-can be a powerful tool to help build national ownership, fiscal sustainability and programme visibility. Using Gavi's successful co-financing model as reference, the current paper draws out a set of key considerations for developing policies on co-financing of FP commodities in resource-poor settings. Macroeconomic and contextual sensitivities must be incorporated while classifying countries and determining co-financing obligations-using the actual GNI per capita on a scale or sovereign credit ratings, in conjunction with programmatic indicators, may be preferred. It is also important for policies to allow sufficiently long time for countries to transition-dependent on the country context, may be up to 10 years as allowed under the US Agency for International Development FP graduation policy and flexibility to revisit the terms following externalities that can influence the fiscal space for health. Incentivizing new domestic financing to pay for co-financing dues is critical, so as not to displace government funding from related health or social sector programs. Pragmatic ways to ensure country compliance can include engaging both the ministries of health and finance as co-signatories to identify and address known administrative and fiscal challenges; establishing dedicated co-financing account with the finance ministry; and instituting a mutual monitoring mechanism. Lastly, the overall process of policymaking can benefit from an alignment of goals and interests of the key development partners.

A comparative study of governmental financial support and resilience of self-employed people in Sweden and Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Globally, self-employed people were among the hardest hit by the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and faced hardships such as financial decline, restrictions, and business closures. A plethora of financial support measures were rolled out worldwide to support them, but there is a lack of research looking at the effect of the policy measures on self-employed people. To understand how different governmental financial support measures enhanced the resilience of the self-employed and improved their ability to manage the pandemic, we conducted a mixed-method study using policy analysis and semi-structured interviews. The documents described policies addressing governmental financial support in Sweden and Canada during the pandemic, and the interviews were conducted with Swedish and Canadian self-employed people to explore how they experienced the support measures in relation to their resilience. The key results were that self-employed people in both countries who were unable to telework were less resilient during the pandemic due to financial problems, restrictions, and lockdowns. The interviews revealed that many self-employed people in hard-hit industries were dissatisfied with the support measures and found them to be unfairly distributed. In addition, the self-employed people experiencing difficulties running their businesses reported reduced well-being, negatively affecting their business survival.

Does digital inclusive finance promote the integration of rural industries? Based on the mediating role of financial availability and agricultural digitization.

The integration of rural industries will inevitably lead to new business forms and new models, which put forward new requirements for traditional agricultural finance. The development of digital inclusive finance will provide new momentum for the integration of rural industries. Based on the provincial panel data from 2011 to 2020, the evaluation index system is constructed from three dimensions: industrial integration method, integration subject and integration format, and the development index of rural industrial integration is calculated. This paper establishes double fixed effect model and intermediary effect model to test the effect and path of digital inclusive finance on the integration of rural industries, and further explores the regulatory role and spatial difference of financial support. The results show that: (1) The integration of rural industries shows a growing trend, the eastern region develops more rapidly, while the central and western regions develop more slowly; (2) The digital inclusive finance can promote the integration of rural industries, digitization degree is remarkable, but coverage breadth and using depth are not significant, increasing the rate of per capita electricity consumption and urbanization can promote the integration of rural industries, consumption has limited pulling effect on the integration of rural industries, the per capita investment in fixed assets has no significant effects on the integration of rural industries; (3) The financial availability and the agricultural digitization play a complete intermediary effect; (4) Financial support has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between the two; (5) The eastern and central regions have a significant promoting effect, while the western region has a negative effect.

Overage labor, intergenerational financial support, and depression among older rural residents: evidence from China.

Background: Depression is a major factor affecting the happiness of older rural residents. With the increasing aging of the Chinese population, overage labor is becoming more prevalent in rural areas of China. This study aimed to assess whether, and if so, how, overage labor affects depression status in older rural residents. Methods: Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this study explored the association between overage labor and depression among older rural residents by using ordinary least squares and moderated mediation models. Results: The results show that overage labor significantly reduced levels of depression in older rural residents. This result remained robust after using propensity score matching and double machine learning. Furthermore, the improvement of older rural residents' depression via overage labor is mainly achieved through work income, but this mediating effect is negatively moderated by intergenerational financial support. This implies that in traditional Chinese rural society, intergenerational financial support from children plays an important role in reducing depression among older rural residents. Conclusion: Our findings have potential policy implications for China and other developing countries in terms of addressing issues related to aging and depression in older adults.

Did Financial Social Support for Tuberculosis Patients Lead to Better Treatment Outcomes in Türkiye during 2018-2019?

This study examined which factors, including the regular financial social support program, influence tuberculosis (TB) treatment outcomes and success rates. Patients with TB registered during 2018-2019 were included in this retrospective cohort study. We classified them into 2 groups: those who received financial support for at least one month, and those who did not. Of the 22,867 sampled patients, 5,033 received financial social support and 17,834 did not. The success rate was 11.9% higher among patients who received financial social support than among those who did not (97.34% versus 85.40%). After controlling for other factors, the success rate among all patients was 1.3 times higher for female, 2.6 times higher for those under 50 years, 1.5 times higher for extra-pulmonary TB, 1.5 times higher for a new case, 5.9 times higher for drug susceptible TB, and 5.8 times higher for those who received financial support. Crucially, this is the first study from Türkiye evaluating the effect of a regular financial social support program on TB treatment outcomes since the program began in 2018. We recommend regular financial support for patients with TB in all countries.

Investigating sustainability challenges for the National Health Insurance Fund in Tanzania: a modelling approach.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to model the long-term cost associated with expanding public health insurance coverage in Tanzania. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We analysed the 2016 claims of 2 923 524 beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Fund in Tanzania. The analysis focused on determining the average cost per beneficiary across 5-year age groups separated by gender, and grouped by broad health condition categories. We then modelled three different insurance coverage scenarios from 2020 to 2050 and we estimated the associated costs. OUTCOME MEASURES: Average cost per beneficiary and the projected financing requirements, projected from 2020 to 2050. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that the average per beneficiary cost for insurance claims was $38.58. Among males over 75 years, the average insurance claims costs were highest, amounting to $125. The total estimated annual cost of claims in 2020 was $151 million. Under the status quo coverage scenario, total claims were projected to increase to $415 million by 2050. Increasing coverage from 7% to 50% would result in an additional financing requirement of $2.27 billion. If coverage would increase by 10% annually, reaching 56% of the population by 2050, the additional financing need would amount to $2.84 billion. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the critical importance of assessing the long-term financial viability of health insurance schemes aimed to cover large segments of the population in low-income countries. The findings demonstrate that even without expansion of coverage, financing requirements for insurance will more than triple by 2050. Furthermore, increasing coverage is likely to substantially escalate the cost of claims, potentially requiring significant government or external contributions to finance these additional costs. Policymakers and stakeholders should carefully evaluate the sustainability of insurance schemes to ensure adequate financial support for expanding coverage and improving healthcare access in low-income settings.

Conditional Cash Transfer to Improve TB Outcomes: Necessary but Not Sufficient Comment on "Does Direct Benefit Transfer Improve Outcomes Among People With Tuberculosis? - A Mixed-Methods Study on the Need for a Review of the Cash Transfer Policy in India".

Tuberculosis (TB) still represents a major public health problem in many regions of the world. TB control can only be achieved through a comprehensive and inclusive response which takes into account both upstream and downstream coordinated interventions related to structural determinants such as poverty, nutrition, sanitation, housing and access to healthcare as well as timely diagnosis and support throughout the course of treatment. Several social and financial support strategies have been proposed to improve TB treatment adherence, including conditional cash transfers (CCTs). In this context, demonstrating that social protection directly improves a specific health outcome using routinely collected data, incomplete registries or surveillance reports brings about many methodological challenges. We briefly discuss this paper and some limitations, describe main findings from our own research in this area and make a call to expand social protection interventions to address structural conditions of those most affected.

The relationship between intergenerational financial support and depressive symptoms among older adults: Evidence from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, 2011-2018.

OBJECTIVE: Aimed to investigate the effect of intergenerational financial support on depressive symptoms among older adults over time. METHODS: Data were obtained from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018. A finite distributed lag (FDL) model was employed, long-run cumulative effect was evaluated. 1426 respondents followed in four waves were included in FDL model. CES-D score was used to measure depressive symptoms, intergenerational financial support was defined as financial support received from older adults' children or grandchildren. Sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, social insurance, and social contact factors were controlled in the model. RESULTS: More than a third older adults in China had a CES-D score of 10 or higher. Intergenerational financial support has a significant long-run cumulative negative effect on older adults' depressive symptoms (CES-D scores: coef. = -0.674, P < 0.001; % with CES-D scores ≥10: Coef. = -0.154, P = 0.018). While, the intergenerational financial support in previous period exhibited a significant negative association with depressive symptoms, the 2, 3, and 4 periods did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Intergenerational financial support has a significant negative effect on older adults' depressive symptoms over time, while the effect may diminish. Programs need to be explored to support home-based eldercare to mitigate this diminished effect.

Lessons learned for pandemic preparedness: A collaborative network is imperative.

The scientific community improvised to respond quickly to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic without a template on how to work together on a global scale to understand and combat the virus. Here, we describe how we tackled impediments to success and the valuable lessons learned that prepare us for a future pandemic.

Socioeconomic differences in parental financial support, coresidence, and advice: A portrait of undergraduate students in the Canadian Prairies.

In this paper, we examine the intersections of parental support and family socioeconomic background within an undergraduate sample (N = 596) in a mid-sized Canadian Prairie city. Coresidence, financial support, and parental and professional financial advice are examined as types of 'family capital' that may be distributed unequally across socioeconomic groups. In keeping with previous literature, findings showed that students whose parents had university education and higher incomes received more robust coverage of their housing and school expenses. Students whose parents were university-educated were also more likely to be living with a parent, though no relationship was found between parental income and coresidence. Contrasting with previous literature, few relationships were found between socioeconomic background and receipt or influence of financial advice. These results contribute to the literature by generalising claims about family capital to a Canadian student sample, where relatively few studies have empirically examined intergenerational transfers as mechanisms for transmitting privilege during the transition to adulthood. With increasing demands for higher education and simultaneous declines in government subsidisation of its costs, disparate access to family capital is likely to intensify the reproduction of social inequality across generations.

Dans cet article, nous examinons les intersections entre le soutien parental et les antécédents socioéconomiques de la famille au sein d'un échantillon d'étudiants de premier cycle (N = 596) dans une ville canadienne de taille moyenne des Prairies. La coresidence, le soutien financier et les conseils financiers parentaux et professionnels sont examinés en tant que types de ' capital familial ' susceptibles d'être répartis de manière inégale entre les groupes socioéconomiques. Conformément à la littérature antérieure, les résultats ont montré que les étudiants dont les parents ont fait des études universitaires et ont des revenus plus élevés bénéficient d'une couverture plus solide de leurs frais de logement et de scolarité. Les étudiants dont les parents ont fait des études universitaires sont également plus susceptibles de vivre avec un parent, bien qu'aucune relation n'ait été établie entre le revenu des parents et la coresidence. Contrairement à la littérature précédente, peu de liens ont été établis entre le milieu socio-économique et l'obtention ou l'influence des conseils financiers. Ces résultats contribuent à la littérature en généralisant les affirmations sur le capital familial à un échantillon d'étudiants canadiens, où relativement peu d'études ont examiné empiriquement les transferts intergénérationnels en tant que mécanismes de transmission des privilèges pendant la transition vers l'âge adulte. Avec l'augmentation de la demande d'enseignement supérieur et la diminution simultanée des subventions gouvernementales pour ses coûts, l'accès disparate au capital familial est susceptible d'intensifier la reproduction de l'inégalité sociale entre les générations.

Narrowing yield gaps does not guarantee a living income from smallholder farming-an empirical study from western Kenya.

Crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa need to increase to keep pace with food demands from the burgeoning population. Smallholder farmers play an important role in national food self-sufficiency, yet many live in poverty. Investing in inputs to increase yields is therefore often not viable for them. To investigate how to unlock this paradox, whole-farm experiments can reveal which incentives could increase farm production while also increasing household income. In this study we investigated the impact of providing farmers with a US$ 100 input voucher each season, for five seasons in a row, on maize yields and overall farm-level production in two contrasting locations in terms of population density, Vihiga and Busia, in western Kenya. We compared the value of farmers' produce with the poverty line and the living income threshold. Crop yields were mainly limited by cash constraints and not by technological constraints as maize yield immediately increased from 16% to 40-50% of the water-limited yield with the provision of the voucher. In Vihiga, at best, one-third of the participating households reached the poverty line. In Busia half of the households reached the poverty line and one-third obtained a living income. This difference between locations was caused by larger farm areas in Busia. Although one third of the households increased the area farmed, mostly by renting land, this was not enough for them to obtain a living income. Our results provide empirical evidence of how a current smallholder farming system could improve its productivity and value of produce upon the introduction of an input voucher. We conclude that increasing yields of the currently most common crops cannot provide a living income for all households and additional institutional changes, such as alternative employment, are required to provide smallholder farmers a way out of poverty.

Does financial institutions assure financial support in a digital economy for energy transition? Empirical evidences from Markov chain and DEA technique.

Enhancing the energy transition of the Chinese economy toward digitalization gained high importance in realizing SDG-7 and SDG-17. For this, the role of modern financial institutions in China and their efficient financial support is highly needed. While the rise of the digital economy is a promising new trend, its potential impact on financial institutions and financial support is unproven. For this, this research intended to study how financial institutions assure financial support for China's energy transition toward digitalization. To attain this purpose, DEA analysis and Markov chain techniques are applied to the Chinese data from 2011 to 2021. The results estimated that the transition of the Chinese economy toward digitalization significantly depends upon the digital services of financial institutions and extended digital financial support. The extent of the digital energy transition in China can enhance economic sustainability. The role of Chinese financial institutions accounted for 29.86% of the total effect in transiting China's digital economy. In comparison, the part of digital financial services is found to be significant, with a score of 19.77%. The Markov chain estimates revealed that the digitalization of financial institutions is 86.1%, and financial support is 28.6% important for the digital energy transition of China. The Markov chain result caused a digital energy transition of 28.2% in China from 2011 to 2021. The findings highlighted that China still warrants more prudent and active efforts for financial and economic digitalization, for which the primary research also presents multiple policy recommendations.