Gender difference in unmet need for assistance with activities of daily living among disabled seniors in China : a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: This study explores the gender difference in unmet need for assistance with activities of daily living among older adults with disabilities in China. DESIGN: Logistic regression analysis was employed to examine the gender difference and identify influential factors among disabled male and female seniors. SETTING: 23 provinces throughout China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1700 disabled seniors were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Of 1700 respondents, 619 (36.4%) were disabled male seniors. Overall, the possibility of unmet need for activity of daily living assistance among disabled female seniors was significantly lower than that among male group (OR 0.728; 95% CI 0.559 to 0.948) than males. Family care resources, economic status and loneliness were influential factors among disabled seniors regardless of genders. Furthermore, disabled female seniors from rural area (p=0.011), whose primary caregiver was willing to take care of them (p=0.022), whose community could provide daily life service (p=0.002) were more likely to have unmet need. Meanwhile, disabled female seniors whose community could provide medical service(p=0.001) were less likely to report unmet need. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that disabled male seniors were more likely to experience unmet need compared with female ones. Reducing unmet need for assistance with activities of daily living among disabled seniors and existing gender disparities therefore requires not only universal strategy, but also targeted policies which should be made or modified for disabled seniors of different genders.