Associations between social support and poverty among older adults.

Background: With population aging becoming a pressing global concern, social support is more meaningful for older adults. In particular, financial supports, such as health insurance and financial assistance derived from family, all play great role in assistance affairs. Research shows social support possibly has an impact on poverty, but the association between formal and informal supports is unclear. We are aimed at verifying the association between distinct social supports and exploring whether this association would affect poverty alleviation for older adults.

Methods: A total of 2,683 individuals aged 60 years or older who have medical expenses were included in a survey conducted by the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2018. A chi-square analysis and an independent samples T test all were used to explore the differences of social supports among old people with different economic condition. A binary logistic regression was aimed at analyzing the association between social supports and poverty for older adults. The structural equation model was established to evaluate the association between formal support and informal support and the mechanism(s) of social supports affecting poverty.

Results: The overall average rate of reimbursement for outpatient care was 0.20 with standard deviation 0.22, and the average reimbursement rate of inpatient care for the poor older adults is nearly 5% lower than the average of the non-poor older adults. We found that having private health insurance and higher reimbursement rate of inpatient care were associated with lower likelihood of living in poverty for older adults. Formal support would directly affect poverty, but its impact on poverty through informal support is insignificant even if formal support is negatively associated with informal support.

Conclusion: A dilemma in reducing the economic burden of disease and receiving family assistance for older adults was revealed, and a more complete health security and higher level of medical expenses compensation would be beneficial to prevent poverty. Optimizing the primary healthcare and increasing the percentage of insurance compensation, policies that focus on the specific cultural values and strengthening the role of supplementary insurance are advantaged for alleviating poverty among older adults.