AUTHOR=Shen Tongtong , Li Dongju , Hu Zengyun , Li Jie , Wei Xi 

TITLE=The impact of social support on the quality of life among older adults in China: An empirical study based on the 2020 CFPS

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.914707

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.914707

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Background: As the aging issues become serious, how to guarantee and improve the quality of life among older adults has become a hot topic in China. This paper is aimed to discuss the impact of formal and informal social support on the quality of life among older adults and the differences in gender and urban-rural areas. 
Methods: The data used in this paper are from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Quality of life is measured from three dimensions of life satisfaction, self-rated health and mental state. This paper uses the ordered logistic regression model to analyze the impact of social support on life satisfaction and self-rated health, and the binary logistic regression model to analyze the impact of social support on the mental state. The method of Shapley value decomposition further analyzes the contribution of influencing factors to the quality of life.
Results: The activities of daily living (ADL) and income significantly impact the quality of life among older adults. Formal and informal social support positively improved the quality of life among older adults, but the effect of informal social support is greater than that of formal social support. The male older adults are significantly better than the females across all three dimensions of quality of life. The mental state of urban older adults is better than that of rural older adults.
Conclusion: Formal and informal social support should be strengthened to improve the income of older adults. Encourage the older adults to participate in social activities and establish good interpersonal relationships actively. Female older adults should be paid more attention. The proportion of female older adults participating in insurance should be increased, and the family and intergenerational care burden for female older adults should be reduced. The leisure life of urban older adults should be enriched. The basic social insurance and health service systems in rural areas should be improved.