Estimating long term care needs of older people in Beijing

Abstract

Earlier studies estimated that between 9% and 22% of older people in mainland China need long term care (LTC) services. Some believe that these figures are not reliable as they mainly came from surveys with no precise assessments of physical and cognitive functioning. We estimated the LTC needs of older people in Beijing using MDS-HC assessment. Method: We conducted MDS-HC assessment with 672 older people randomly selected from an old urban district in Beijing in 2011. Respondents were also asked whether they prefer moving to nursing home when they become frail. Findings: About 4% of the respondents had ADL difficulties and/or cognitive impairments that need LTC services. After controlling for health and functioning, older people with more education and higher income were more likely to prefer moving to nursing home when they become frail. Implications: Current study called for a more precise method in measuring LTC needs in China.