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Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach

As the trend of aging in rural China has intensified, research on the factors affecting the health of the elderly in rural areas has become a hot issue. However, the conclusions of existing studies are inconsistent and even contradictory, making it difficult to form constructive policies with practi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhuori, Natuya, Cai, Yu, Yan, Yan, Cui, Yu, Zhao, Minjuan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6765987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31540450
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183471
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author Zhuori, Natuya
Cai, Yu
Yan, Yan
Cui, Yu
Zhao, Minjuan
author_facet Zhuori, Natuya
Cai, Yu
Yan, Yan
Cui, Yu
Zhao, Minjuan
author_sort Zhuori, Natuya
collection PubMed
description As the trend of aging in rural China has intensified, research on the factors affecting the health of the elderly in rural areas has become a hot issue. However, the conclusions of existing studies are inconsistent and even contradictory, making it difficult to form constructive policies with practical value. To explore the reasons for the inconsistent conclusions drawn by relevant research, in this paper we constructed a meta-regression database based on 65 pieces of relevant literature published in the past 25 years. For more valid samples to reduce publication bias, we also set the statistical significance of social support to the health of the elderly in rural areas as a dependent variable. Finally, combined with multi-dimensional social support and its implications for the health of the elderly, meta-regression analysis was carried out on the results of 171 empirical studies. The results show that (1) subjective support rather than objective support can have a significant impact on the health of the elderly in rural areas, and there is no significant difference between other dimensions of social support and objective support; (2) the health status of the elderly in rural areas in samples involving western regions is more sensitive to social support than that in samples not involving the western regions; (3) among the elderly in rural areas, social support for the older male elderly is more likely to improve their health than that for the younger female elderly; and (4) besides this, both data sources and econometric models greatly affect the heterogeneity of the effect of social support on the health of the elderly in rural areas, but neither the published year nor the journal is significant. Finally, relevant policies and follow-up studies on the impact of social support on the health of the elderly in rural areas are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-67659872019-09-30 Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach Zhuori, Natuya Cai, Yu Yan, Yan Cui, Yu Zhao, Minjuan Int J Environ Res Public Health Article As the trend of aging in rural China has intensified, research on the factors affecting the health of the elderly in rural areas has become a hot issue. However, the conclusions of existing studies are inconsistent and even contradictory, making it difficult to form constructive policies with practical value. To explore the reasons for the inconsistent conclusions drawn by relevant research, in this paper we constructed a meta-regression database based on 65 pieces of relevant literature published in the past 25 years. For more valid samples to reduce publication bias, we also set the statistical significance of social support to the health of the elderly in rural areas as a dependent variable. Finally, combined with multi-dimensional social support and its implications for the health of the elderly, meta-regression analysis was carried out on the results of 171 empirical studies. The results show that (1) subjective support rather than objective support can have a significant impact on the health of the elderly in rural areas, and there is no significant difference between other dimensions of social support and objective support; (2) the health status of the elderly in rural areas in samples involving western regions is more sensitive to social support than that in samples not involving the western regions; (3) among the elderly in rural areas, social support for the older male elderly is more likely to improve their health than that for the younger female elderly; and (4) besides this, both data sources and econometric models greatly affect the heterogeneity of the effect of social support on the health of the elderly in rural areas, but neither the published year nor the journal is significant. Finally, relevant policies and follow-up studies on the impact of social support on the health of the elderly in rural areas are discussed. MDPI 2019-09-18 2019-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6765987/ /pubmed/31540450 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183471 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zhuori, Natuya
Cai, Yu
Yan, Yan
Cui, Yu
Zhao, Minjuan
Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach
title Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach
title_full Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach
title_fullStr Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach
title_full_unstemmed Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach
title_short Does Social Support Affect the Health of the Elderly in Rural China? A Meta-Analysis Approach
title_sort does social support affect the health of the elderly in rural china? a meta-analysis approach
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6765987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31540450
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183471
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