Monthly Disposable Income Is a Crucial Factor Affecting the Quality of Life in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

The "spillover effect" of long-term care insurance in China on spouses' health and well-being

This study examined the spillover effect of long-term care insurance (LTCI) on the health outcomes and well-being of spouses for Chinese middle and old-aged adults with expected LTC demand or actual care burdens. Using panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study between 2011 and 2018, we investigated the impact of the introduction of LTCI pilots across several cities on old individuals by using the difference-in-differences (DID) approach. We found a spillover effect of LTCI on the health and well-being outcomes of spouses of middle and old-aged individuals with functional limitations. It might due to the fact that LTCI could relieve economic burden by reducing out-of-pocket medical expenditures, which further affects health and well-being of spouses. The spillover effect on health and well-being was found to be stronger for male spouses and low-educated spouses. Spouses of the individuals aged below 80 years old and those live without adult children were more likely to benefit from the introduction of LTCI. Moreover, providing combination benefits seems to make spouses better off than offering direct services. Therefore, the results implied that the expansion of LTCI not only helped the care recipients themselves but could also improve the health and well-being of the spouses of functionally impaired older adults.

Health Informatics: The Foundations of Public Health

As technology continues to evolve, vast amounts of diverse digital data are becoming more easily generated and collected [...]

Impact of long-term care insurance on the health status of middle-aged and older adults

With the increase of aging population, long-term care insurance (LTCI) systems have become important for improving individuals' health. However, the effect of LTCI on health is unclear, especially in developing countries, owing to the lack of random policy shocks and comprehensive databases. This study investigates the Chinese LTCI pilot program, using four waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study database (sample aged ≥45 years) from 2011 to 2018. The recent difference-in-differences approaches for staggered design, which are capable of dealing with the negative weights issue, are used to investigate changes in health status, measured by self-rated health (SRH), (instrumental) activities of daily living, self-rated depression, and cognition, in pilot and non-pilot cities before and after LTCI implementation. Long-term care insurance has a significant average effect on SRH improvement and a long-term positive effect on cognition for middle-aged and older populations. This study provides the first evaluation of LTCI policy on health outcomes using the recent difference-in-differences approaches. It provides evidence for the overall health improvement achieved through the LTCI and offers positive reinforcement and potential areas for improvement in establishing LTCI worldwide.