A Quantitative Analysis of Policy Texts on Elderly Health Management in China

This study analyzes the application of policy instruments in Chinas elderly health management policies to provide a reference for optimizing those policies. Using content analysis on 42 national-level policy documents concerning elderly health management, we construct a policy-analysis framework along three dimensions policy instruments, policy objectives, and policy strength and perform coding and quantitative analysis. Results show that supply-side, demand-side, and environment-oriented policy instruments account for 39.81%, 14.38%, and 45.81% of the sample, respectively; the distribution across the four dimensions of policy objectives is uneven; and the average score for policy strength is 3.03. The findings indicate an imbalance in the application of policy instruments for elderly health management in China, with insufficient use of demand-side instruments, a policy objective orientation toward basic foundations, and room for improvement in policy stability. Accordingly, we recommend increasing the use of demand-side policy instruments, expanding policy deployment for services such as health interventions, and improving the coordination and stability of elderly health management policies.