The Impact of Integrated Medical and Elderly Care on the Utilization of Health Management Services for Older Adults in China

This study aims to examine whether the integrated medical and elderly care is conducive to improving the utilization of health management services for older adults. We utilized the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database covering 2011 to 2020, employing the DID model and mediation effect testing for empirical analysis. We also employed the PSM-DID model and a series of other methods for robustness tests and placebo tests. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, the integrated medical and elderly care increases the probability of the treated group’s older adults participating in physical examinations, health assessments, and chronic disease management by 2.4%, 2.7%, and 0.3%, respectively. Secondly, the integrated medical and elderly care has a higher impact on aged 60 to 80, females, rural residents, and healthier older adults. This fully demonstrates that the pilot projects of integrated medical and elderly care can improve the inequality in health management service utilization among vulnerable groups and truly play a role in preventing diseases for older adults. Thirdly, the integration of medical and elderly care enhances the utilization of health management services by increasing the policy agglomeration effect and service accessibility in pilot cities. This study concludes that integrated medical and elderly care can enhance the utilization of health management services among older adults, which is crucial for improving their health and quality of life. The government should fully integrate medical and elderly care service resources to provide one-stop health management services.