Association Between Financial Support and Physical Health in Older People: Evidence from CHARLS Data
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Data Sources
3.2. Variable Selection
3.2.1. Dependent Variable
3.2.2. Independent Variable
3.2.3. Controlled Variables
3.3. Model Construction
- Construct the regression equation of the influence of financial support on the physical health of older people (3);
- If the regression coefficient of financial support is significant, then the regression Equation (4) of the influence of financial support on the intermediary variables and the regression Equation (5) of the influence of financial support and intermediary variables on the physical health of older people are constructed to test whether the intermediary effect exists.
4. Results
4.1. Basic Regression
4.2. Robustness Test
4.3. Heterogeneity Analysis
4.4. The Mechanism of Financial Support on the Physical Health of Older People
5. Discussion
5.1. Summary
5.2. Policy Implications
5.3. Strengths
5.4. Limitations
6. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variable | Description | Frequency | Percent |
---|---|---|---|
Health | Very good | 940 | 9.98% |
Good | 1075 | 11.42% | |
Fair | 4699 | 49.90% | |
Poor | 2004 | 21.28% | |
Very poor | 699 | 7.42% | |
Property_s | No | 9030 | 95.89% |
Yes | 387 | 4.11% | |
CFS_s | No | 3300 | 35.04% |
Yes | 6117 | 64.96% | |
Exercise | No | 4473 | 47.50% |
Yes | 4944 | 52.50% | |
Social | No | 5111 | 54.27% |
Yes | 4306 | 45.73% | |
Gender | Male | 4575 | 48.58% |
Female | 4842 | 51.42% | |
Education | Uneducated (illiterate) | 2749 | 29.19% |
Did not finish primary school | 2196 | 23.32% | |
Graduated from private school | 17 | 0.18% | |
Graduated from primary school | 1998 | 21.22% | |
Graduated from junior high school | 1513 | 16.07% | |
Graduated from high school | 575 | 6.11% | |
Graduate from technical secondary school | 223 | 2.37% | |
College graduate | 88 | 0.93% | |
Bachelor’s degree | 53 | 0.56% | |
Master’s degree | 3 | 0.03% | |
Graduate with a PhD | 2 | 0.02% | |
Married | Unmarried | 57 | 0.61% |
Married | 9360 | 99.39% | |
Household_t | Rural | 6924 | 73.53% |
Urban | 2493 | 26.47% | |
Pension | No | 1821 | 19.34% |
Yes | 7596 | 80.66% | |
COVID2 | Increased greatly | 41 | 0.44% |
Increased slightly | 37 | 0.39% | |
No changed | 3930 | 41.73% | |
Decreased slightly | 825 | 8.76% | |
Decreased greatly | 4584 | 48.68% | |
Urban | City center or town center | 2160 | 22.94% |
Combination zone between urban and rural | 998 | 10.60% | |
Village | 6252 | 66.39% | |
Special area | 7 | 0.07% |
Variable | Observation | M | SD | Min | Max |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Property | 9417 | 0.368 | 1.806 | 0 | 12.206 |
CFS | 9417 | 5.186 | 3.945 | 0 | 12.255 |
Age | 9417 | 68.346 | 6.250 | 60 | 108 |
Offspring | 9417 | 2.841 | 1.373 | 0 | 10 |
Income | 9417 | 1.153 | 3.041 | 0 | 11.695 |
COVID1 | 9231 | 20.233 | 30.333 | 0 | 240 |
Variables | Health | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | |
Property | −0.034 *** (0.010) | −0.027 *** (0.010) | ||
CFS | 0.016 *** (0.005) | 0.010 ** (0.006) | ||
Gender | 0.166 *** (0.044) | 0.162 *** (0.044) | ||
Age | 0.005 (0.004) | 0.005 (0.004) | ||
Education | −0.017 (0.013) | −0.020 (0.013) | ||
Married | −0.037 (0.302) | −0.067 (0.302) | ||
Household_t | −0.182 *** (0.055) | −0.181 *** (0.055) | ||
Offspring | 0.014 (0.019) | 0.006 (0.019) | ||
Income | −0.070 *** (0.007) | −0.070 *** (0.007) | ||
Pension | −0.066 (0.056) | −0.071 (0.056) | ||
COVID1 | 0.002 *** (0.001) | 0.003 *** (0.001) | ||
COVID2 | 0.030 (0.022) | 0.027 (0.022) | ||
City | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled |
Pseudo R2 | 0.017 | 0.025 | 0.017 | 0.025 |
N | 9417 | 9231 | 9417 | 9231 |
Variables | Alternate Explanatory Variable | Narrow Down the Sample | Change Control Variable | Using 2018 Data | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | |
Property | −0.027 ** (0.011) | −0.025 ** (0.011) | |||||
CFS | 0.010 * (0.006) | 0.012 ** (0.006) | |||||
Property_s | −0.248 *** (0.095) | ||||||
CFS_s | 0.099 ** (0.046) | ||||||
Financial support | −0.438 *** (0.166) | ||||||
Urban | 0.118 *** (0.029) | 0.123 *** (0.029) | |||||
Controlled variables | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled |
City | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled |
Pseudo R2 | 0.025 | 0.025 | 0.025 | 0.025 | 0.025 | 0.025 | 0.032 |
N | 9231 | 9231 | 9117 | 9117 | 9231 | 9231 | 5887 |
Variables | Age | Household_t | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
(1) 60–69 Years Old | (2) Age 70 and Older | (3) Urban | (4) Rural | |
Property | −0.021 * (0.012) | −0.053 ** (0.024) | −0.007 (0.018) | −0.053 *** (0.014) |
CFS | 0.008 (0.007) | 0.018 * (0.010) | 0.013 (0.011) | 0.010 (0.007) |
Controlled variables | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled |
City | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled | Controlled |
Pseudo R2 | 0.028 | 0.034 | 0.040 | 0.028 |
N | 5940 | 3291 | 2466 | 6765 |
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Guo, E.; Li, J.; Sun, Y.; Zheng, L. Association Between Financial Support and Physical Health in Older People: Evidence from CHARLS Data. Healthcare 2025, 13, 1163. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13101163
Guo E, Li J, Sun Y, Zheng L. Association Between Financial Support and Physical Health in Older People: Evidence from CHARLS Data. Healthcare. 2025; 13(10):1163. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13101163
Chicago/Turabian StyleGuo, Enkai, Jing Li, Yiyuan Sun, and Lan Zheng. 2025. "Association Between Financial Support and Physical Health in Older People: Evidence from CHARLS Data" Healthcare 13, no. 10: 1163. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13101163
APA StyleGuo, E., Li, J., Sun, Y., & Zheng, L. (2025). Association Between Financial Support and Physical Health in Older People: Evidence from CHARLS Data. Healthcare, 13(10), 1163. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13101163