Measuring demand and supply of community care services for older people healthy ageing in rural Zhejiang Province

BACKGROUND: A consequence of demographic trends and economic prosperous is the increasing diversity in needs for care services. However, the traditional family support for older people has been largely supplanted by the wider provision of community care services. This study aims to investigate the current status of demand and supply in community care services across different villages of Zhejiang province and assess service effectiveness for healthy ageing. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was carried out towards 207 rural villages across 9 cities in Zhejiang province. One hundred eighty-six valid responses were received, representing a response rate of around 89.9%. Descriptive statistics were employed to identify older villagers’ care needs and available community services. Comparative analysis examined the balance between the demand and supply of community care services. Correlation analysis were applied to determine key factors that impacted the supply of social services in rural communities. RESULTS: The research found that rural older residents normally lived with their children or spouse with limited literacy and income. On average the categories of community care services is substantially small in comparison with the increasingly diverse demands of older people in rural areas. There was an obvious mismatch between service demand and service supply in rural communities, which often caused the waste of public resources. Moving forward, the uppermost priority is given to infrastructure construction service and daily life service, while little attention is paid to mental health service and specialized nursing service. CONCLUSION: There needs to be an improvement in the socio-economic capacity of rural communities and in the diversity of social care services. Policies and strategies are also needed to encourage private sectors’ involvement in providing care services for rural older people. Local government should have a clear vision of the potential demands for community care services, practical guidelines will be useful in guaranteeing better service quality.