ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1581039
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing Geriatric Care: International Collaboration and Best Practices for Aging PopulationsView all 15 articles
Exploring Supply and Demand Imbalance of Community-based Elderly Care: An Observational Study in Chongqing, China
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
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Objective: Using an urban area in southwest China as a case study, this research investigates and analyzes the supply and demand of community-based elderly care services to provide a basis for optimizing the elderly care service system.A two-stage sampling method was employed to select older participants. Questionnaires, designed based on the Kano model, were administered to participants, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with community senior center managers and services users. The Kano model, Better-Worse index analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process(Kano-BW-AHP) was used for quantitative analysis, while the two-step cluster analysis was employed for user profiles. Qualitative analysis was based on interview data.Results: A total of 259 questionnaires and 16 interview reports were collected. The Kano analysis identified 34 community elderly services, with most categorized as attractive or indifferent attributes, and only emergency assistance was identified as a one-dimensional attribute. The BW analysis revealed 3 must-be, 9 attractive, and 1 one-dimensional service. The top five services, based on the Kano-BW-AHP model, were contact with friends and relatives, emergency assistance, regular medical checkups, elderly canteen and meal delivery, and special policy consultation. A comparison between those who chose community-based elderly care and those who did not showed statistically significant differences in six variables: age, education, employee medical insurance, a regular pension, living status, and services awareness(P < 0.05). Cluster analysis of participants who chose community elderly care revealed two user profiles: 51 ( 73.9%) were urban, high-educated users with strong consumption willingness; 18 (26.1%) were rural, low-education individuals with limited income. Community elderly care centers face issues included limited service variety, inadequate beds, insufficient staffing, lack of funding, and no follow-up plans. Additionally, the elderly displayed limited understanding of care services, dissatisfaction with catering, and demand for spiritual support.The community-based elderly care system shows a structural imbalance between supply and demand, particularly in terms of service quantity, quality, and efficiency. The findings provides a reference for policy formulation and the improvement of community-based elderly care services.
Keywords: Community-based elderly care, Kano model, Analytic hierarchy process, Cluster analysis, Supply and demand
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 20 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Tian, Tang, Peng and Deng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dan Deng, Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
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