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Many communities provide older people with various opportunities to participate in the society. The 2010 Chinese census reveals that the majority of the older adults in China are still healthy, but research shows that older adults have relatively low levels of community participation. This study aims to determine the factors that affect the community participation of older adults in China using data collected from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The CHARLS survey used a multistage sampling strategy to select respondents from 450 resident or village communities in China. A total of 17,000 persons from 10,000 families participated in the survey. The sample for this study includes 4283 individuals aged 60 years and above who have been invited to answer the survey based on their participation in entertainment and volunteer activities within the past month; 1009 were from urban areas and 3247 were from rural areas. Using logistic regression, this study identifies several variables that can predict the community participation of older adults. These variables included educational background, residence status, self-rated living standard and health status, number of available community facilities, expected social support, family care responsibility and involvement/non-involvement in old-age insurance schemes. In addition, an urban-rural difference was observed in the participation of these adults in entertainment activities, and the differences between older adults residing in urban and rural areas were insignificant in terms of their participation in volunteer work. These findings imply that the Chinese government should consider these predictors and the urban-rural differences when making policies regarding the community participation of older adults.
Wenyi Lin (Wed,) studied this question.