Home Health Care Needs and Willingness to Pay for Home Health Care Among the Empty-nest Elderly in Shanghai, China

Background: As the number of empty-nest elderly rises in the city of Shanghai, ensuring their timely use of health care is a public health concern. The purpose of the study was to examine the home health care needs among the empty-nest elderly living in Shanghai. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to 504 empty-nest elderly and 424 non-empty-nest elderly in Shanghai, China. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the predictors of home health care needs. Linear regression analysis was applied to examine the predictors of willingness to pay for home health care. Results: The empty-nest elderly had higher income, less social support, higher prevalence of chronic diseases, were more likely to have worries or concerns about their health and availability of daily care at home or assistance with travel to the doctor's office than the non-empty-nest elderly. They also had higher home health care needs and were willing to pay more money for home health care. Age, education level, social support, and chronic diseases were correlated with home health care needs. Income, social support, and age were associated with willingness to pay for onsite medical services, and income, social support, age, and education level were associated with willingness to pay for social services. Conclusion: The empty-nest elderly had more home health care needs due to their having less social support and higher prevalence of chronic diseases, and they were willing to pay more money for the home health care because of the higher income and less social support. Copyright (C) 2013, Taiwan Society of Geriatric Emergency & Critical Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. All rights reserved.