Search Results (52)

The rapid growth of China’s aging population has made elderly care a pressing social issue. Due to an imperfect pension system, limited uptake of institutional care, and uneven regional economic development, most elderly people in China still rely on home-based care. Elderly people living at home are usually cared for by their family, partners, caregivers, or themselves. However, this often fails to meet their complex health, safety, and emotional needs. Artificial intelligence may provide promising solutions to improve home care experiences and address the multifaceted health and lifestyle challenges faced by homebound elderly people. This review explores the applications of artificial intelligence in home-based care from four main perspectives: home health care, home safety and security, smart life assistants, and psychological care and emotional support. We systematically searched PubMed, IEEE Xplore, CNKI, and Scopus databases, integrated the latest research published between 2015 and 2024, focused on peer-reviewed, practice-oriented research, and reviewed relevant technology development paths and the current status of the field. Unlike previous studies that focused on physiological monitoring, this study is the first to systematically and comprehensively evaluate the role of artificial intelligence in improving the convenience of daily life and mental health support for elderly people at home. By comprehensively reviewing and analyzing the basic principles and application background of artificial intelligence technology in this field, we summarize the current technical and ethical challenges and propose future research directions. This study aims to help readers gain a deeper understanding of the current status and emerging trends of artificial intelligence-enabled home-based elderly care, thereby providing valuable insights for continued innovation and application in this rapidly developing field. Full article

The sustainability and adequacy of pension systems are central to public policy debates in aging societies. This paper introduces a novel microsimulation model with probabilistic behavior to assess these dual challenges in the Spanish pension system. The model employs a mixed-projection method, integrating a macro approach—using economic and demographic aggregates from official sources such as the Spanish Statistics Office (INE) and Eurostat—with a micro approach based on the Continuous Sample of Working Lives (MCVL) dataset from Spanish Social Security. This framework enables individual-level projections of key labor market variables, including work time, salary, and initial pensions, under diverse reform scenarios. The results demonstrate the model’s ability to predict initial pensions with high accuracy, providing detailed insights into adequacy by age, gender, and income levels, as well as distributional measures such as density functions and quantiles. Sustainability findings indicate that pension expenditures are projected to stabilize at 13.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2050. The proposed model provides a robust and versatile tool for policymakers, offering a comprehensive evaluation of the long-term impacts of pension reforms on both system sustainability and individual adequacy. Full article

The purpose of this article was to examine the level and variability of budgetary expenditures directed to the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (ASIF) in Poland in the form of subsidies to the Farmers’ Pension Fund in the period 2004–2024, i.e., after Poland’s accession to the European Union (EU). The aim of the study was also to determine the share of subsidies to the farmers’ social insurance fund in the total expenditures of the Polish agricultural budget, as well as the relationship of ASIF expenditures to state budget expenditures and GDP dynamics. The authors attempted to estimate the trend function for these time series and the degree of fit of the equations describing them. The formation of the nominal and real level of budget expenditures on the ASIF in 2004–2024 was evaluated. It was assumed that spending on the ASIF is an element of agricultural policy, realising its redistributive and social objectives, but indirectly also pro-development objectives by supporting generational change in agriculture. The research showed that the real level of spending on ASIF declined during Poland’s EU membership, as did the share of this spending in the total agricultural budget. The subsidy to the social security system also did not follow the changes in GDP and state budget expenditure proportionally, showing much less dynamism over the period studied. This means that budget support for farmers’ social security is losing its importance as an instrument of agricultural policy. It has been shown that the economic and social components of agricultural expenditure have not grown in harmony. The changes in the level of spending on the ASIF in the period 2004–2024 were also analysed in relation to demographic changes, i.e., the number of farmers insured in the ASIF and recipients of agricultural pensions. It has been shown that, despite a significant decrease in the number of farmers receiving pensions from the ASIF, there remains a large disparity between the average pension benefits of farmers and those of the general social insurance system (Social Insurance Institution—SII). The reduction in this disparity is not served by a real reduction in subsidies to the ASIF. Full article

The optimal management of pension funds has become increasingly critical. As the population ages, the effective management of pension funds is essential for the social security system. The primary goal of this paper is to develop a deterministic nonlinear multi-objective optimization model to determine the contribution rates in a defined contribution pension system. The computational optimization model was implemented using the LINGO language. In the first part of this study, three main scenarios were analyzed considering different inflation rates, focusing on the objective function that minimizes the salary percentages workers pay when saving for a specified period while aiming to achieve a certain number of coverage years. The first scenario assumes that the worker desires an economic quality equivalent to their working life, showing that contribution rates range from 10% to 30% (with a 3% inflation rate). The second scenario posits that the worker only requires 80% of their equivalent salary during retirement, resulting in contribution rates directly proportional to those in scenario 1 (using the same parameters). The third scenario speculates that inflation may reach 7% per year, causing contribution rates to rise significantly from 40% to 80%. Finally, the Pareto front illustrates the trade-off between the contribution rate and the coverage years based on scenario 1 parameters. Full article

Chinese rural elderly care services face challenges such as low levels of pensions and social security, as well as high proportions of the elderly living alone and those who are incapacitated and lack assistance. The rural elderly surrounding megacities have been more significantly impacted by urbanization (with relatives moving away to the megacities for jobs) than in other areas, so the well-being of this particular group deserves even more attention. However, existing major studies in China are mainly limited to those in need in specific regions, and there is little research on the well-being of special age groups. To fill the research gap, this study constructs an indicator system for the well-being assessment with five dimensions and explores the well-being of the rural elderly surrounding Xi’an and its obstacles using questionnaire data. The results indicate that (1) the well-being index of the rural elderly surrounding Xi’an in each dimension, in descending order, are medical health, spiritual fulfillment (the pursuit of the spiritual world of the elderly and their desire for a better life), quality of life, social relationships, and economic income status; (2) the comprehensive well-being of the rural elderly varies considerably in the northern counties and districts of Xi’an, and is relatively low in the south; and (3) spiritual fulfillment and medical health are the main obstacles to the improvement of well-being of the rural elderly surrounding Xi’an. Based on these findings, corresponding policy implications are proposed on the five dimensions of well-being, such as improving the rural social old-age insurance and medical insurance systems, providing old-age support for the families of the rural elderly, establishing a model of village old-age care, and promoting the rural habitation renovation, to provide guarantees for the improvement of the well-being of the rural elderly surrounding megacities. Full article

As a new driving force for economic growth, the digital economy has had a profound impact on the labor market. While the existing research has explored the role of the digital economy in job substitution, creation, and polarization effects, the research on the impact on the social insurance fund income is relatively scarce. In view of this, based on the provincial panel data from 2011 to 2020, this paper analyzes the effect and mechanism of the digital economy on the pension income by using the moderated chain intermediary model and random forest regression. The results show that: (1) the employment scale, labor income, industrial structure, and government intervention are the important factors affecting the income of urban pension insurance; (2) the development of the digital economy has a negative impact on the income of the basic pension insurance fund for urban employees, and the chain intermediary effect that indirectly affects the employment scale and labor income through promoting the upgrading of the industrial structure has a negative impact on the income of the pension insurance fund. The employment scale and employment income of the industries with high and low substitution rates have a significant impact; (3) government intervention can regulate the negative impact of the digital economy development on the pension fund income. Furthermore, taking the transformation and reform of social security collection and payment institutions in July 2018 as an opportunity, the analysis using the event study method found that the average level of the pension income in the regions where the tax department was fully responsible increased significantly compared with the regions where the social security department collected it. Therefore, in order to maintain the sustainability of the pension fund income and effectively prevent the problem of old-age poverty caused by the “silver wave” and the lack of protection of workers’ rights and interests, institutional innovation should be promoted, the current tax policy should be adjusted, and the inclusiveness and flexibility of the pension security system should be improved. Digital technology should be used to improve the government’s intervention capacity and management level, and promote the positive interaction between the digital economy and the pension insurance system. Full article

The joint involvement of family and society in elderly care is a crucial factor in improving the health status of older adults and narrowing health disparities, which are essential for achieving sustainable development goals. However, the interactions between these entities and their mechanisms of influence require further investigation. By utilizing data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS) spanning 2014 to 2016 and employing the Kakwani index of individual relative deprivation in conjunction with a two-way fixed-effects model for unbalanced panel data, in this study, we investigated the mechanisms through which social elderly care security and familial support influence health inequalities among the elderly. The findings reveal that only senior benefits (=−0.009, p < 0.05) significantly mitigate relative health deprivation in this population. Enrollment in pension insurance amplifies the sense of relative health deprivation among the elderly, but this effect becomes insignificant after controlling for temporal effects. Both economic support (=−0.002, p < 0.05) and emotional support (=−0.004, p < 0.01) from offspring significantly reduce the level of relative health deprivation among the elderly. Mechanism testing results indicate that individual attitudes towards aging serve as a mediator in the relationship between relative health deprivation and preferential treatment, economic support, and emotional support. The results of further heterogeneity tests suggest that the impact of various elderly support models on relative health deprivation differs by age, gender, and residential area.These findings confirm that support from both society and family plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable health outcomes for the elderly. Consequently, it is recommended to enhance the social elderly care security system, bolster familial support functions, cultivate positive individual attitudes towards aging, and address health inequalities among the elderly in accordance with their distinct characteristics, thereby improving their quality of life and sense of fulfillment, and contributing to the broader goals of sustainable development. Full article

This study contributes to the discussion about a fair and balanced pension system with a collectively funded pension scheme or social security and a defined contribution pillar. With an invigorated risk approach using financial option positions, it considers the variance of socioeconomic interests of different society-earning cohorts. By that, it enables the assumption of un-uniformity in interests about the fair and sustainable pension design. Specifically, we claim that the alternative cost of hedging the ideal position to the counterparty position studies the implied risks and returns that participants are willing to absorb and hence may lead to a fair compromise when there are different interests. The novelty of the introduced method is mainly based on the variety of participants’ risks and not on the utility function. Accordingly, we spare the discussion about the right shape of the utility function and the proper calibrations. Full article

The rapid growth of the elderly population is a major global demographic and social issue. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of pension plans and social security programmes for this population in developing countries, which has severe consequences for their quality of life and well-being. In this article, we aim to better understand the pension systems in developing country contexts such as Ghana, Pakistan, and Myanmar by reviewing official government materials (for example, pension reports) and the published literature to suggest relevant policy recommendations. We observed several policy implementation gaps and inequities in pension schemes for older people, specifically for informal and private sector workers. Considering the size of formal versus informal economies and the level of development index of each country, we suggest a wide variety of options for pension policies, financing, designing cash benefits, and pension payments to cover all older citizens. This article addresses the unmet needs of the elderly and their wider economic sustainability to ensure social justice and resource utilisation. Governments in developing countries should embrace and establish unique, inclusive, and friendly policies encompassing the informal sector to warrant older adults’ functional and social well-being with dignity and honour. Full article

With the aging of China’s population, the problem of pension security has become more and more prominent, and whether delayed retirement can effectively alleviate the pension fund gap and ensure the sustainability of the pension fund has become the focus of social concern. This study predicts the income and expenditure of urban workers’ basic pension insurance fund from 2021 to 2050 by constructing an actuarial model of pension insurance fund income and expenditure, and simulates the effect of delayed retirement policy. The prediction results show that under the existing system, the basic pension insurance fund for urban workers will have a shortfall for the first time in 2027, and the shortfall will expand year by year. Compared with the non-implementation of delayed retirement policy, the simulation of the implementation of a delayed retirement program delayed the emergence of the fund gap until 2029, and the forecast period of the pension fund gap significantly narrowed, indicating that delayed retirement policy has a certain positive impact on alleviating the pressure of pension payments, but delayed retirement cannot completely eliminate the pension fund gap. In view of this, this paper suggests that a progressive and flexible delayed retirement policy should be introduced as soon as possible to better adapt to the needs of different groups. At the same time, differentiated policies should be formulated for different groups of people and a pension incentive mechanism for delayed retirement should be set up to improve public acceptance of delayed retirement policy. In addition, delayed retirement policy should be combined with other measures, such as lowering the corporate contribution rate and enhancing the value-added capacity of the pension fund, so as to ensure the sustainability of the pension fund. Full article

The question of how to effectively alleviate the financial pressure on pension insurance due to the increase in life expectancy has become an important issue in the reform of China’s social security system. This paper introduced two life expectancy-related delayed retirement schemes, namely the fixed expected retirement residual life and the fixed life burden ratio. We modeled the financial balance of the employee pension fund and the pension wealth of employees with a dynamic retirement age according to pension policy. Using the population mortality data, the dynamic retirement age under the two schemes was estimated under the stochastic mortality model. Following this, the impact of the two delayed retirement schemes was quantitatively assessed from the perspectives of the financial sustainability of the pension fund and the pension wealth of employees using insurance actuarial methods. This study found that the two life expectancy-related delayed retirement schemes have obvious effects on reducing the gap between the income and expenditure of the pension fund and increasing the pension wealth of employees. Moreover, it found that the fixed expected retirement residual life program contributes more than the fixed life burden ratio program to improve the financial sustainability of the pension fund and the pension wealth benefits of employees. Full article

In recent years, the issue of population aging has been a challenge for China’s economic and social development. Due to factors such as the imperfect pension security system, the financial vulnerability of families has been greatly impacted by population aging. Digital inclusive finance is a financial model that utilizes digital technology and innovative approaches to provide financial services to low-income groups and impoverished areas. With the rapid development of the concept of digital inclusive finance, an increasing number of households are beginning to use digital inclusive finance products. It is worth exploring whether this financial model can help alleviate the financial vulnerability of aging families. Therefore, it is of both theoretical and practical significance to study the role of digital inclusive finance in improving the financial vulnerability of aging families. This study assembled unbalanced panel data using both 2016 and 2018 China Household Tracking Survey (CFPS) data and the digital financial inclusion index. An empirical analysis was conducted using the ordered probit panel model. The research findings indicate the following: First, the increasing elderly population intensifies the financial vulnerability of families. Second, digital inclusive finance plays a significant role in improving the financial stability of aging families. Third, digital inclusive finance helps alleviate the impact of population aging on family financial vulnerability by mitigating credit constraints and increasing household income. Fourth, a heterogeneity analysis suggests that in female-headed households, the financial vulnerability caused by population aging is more severe, and the role of digital inclusive finance in improving family financial vulnerability is more prominent. Additionally, the purchase of commercial insurance can effectively alleviate the financial vulnerability of families caused by population aging. Full article

In the insurance and pension industries, as well as in designing social security systems, forecasted mortality rates are of major interest. The current research provides statistical methods based on functional time series analysis to improve mortality rate prediction for the Canadian population. The proposed functional time series-based model was applied to the three-mortality series: total, male and female age-specific Canadian mortality rate over the year 1991 to 2019. Descriptive measures were used to estimate the overall temporal patterns and the functional principal component regression model (fPCA) was used to predict the next ten years mortality rate for each series. Functional autoregressive model (fAR (1)) was used to measure the impact of one year age differences on mortality series. For total series, the mortality rates for children have dropped over the whole data period, while the difference between young adults and those over 40 has only been falling since about 2003 and has leveled off in the last decade of the data. A moderate to strong impact of age differences on Canadian age-specific mortality series was observed over the years. Wider application of fPCA to provide more accurate estimates in public health, demography, and age-related policy studies should be considered. Full article

Background: Food security is linked to the nutritional status and well-being of older adults. India is a rapidly aging nation that ranks highly on the 2022 Global Hunger Index. This paper examines the prevalence and risk factors of food insecurity in India’s older population. Methods: We used data from the 2017–2018 Longitudinal Aging Study in India. The sample size was 31,532 adults aged 60 years and above. Food insecurity was measured using a four-item version of the Food Insecurity Experience scale. Multivariable logistic regressions using individual-level weights were implemented to assess the risk factors of food insecurity. Results: The prevalence of food insecurity was 10.5% in the weighted sample. Sociodemographic factors were important in explaining food insecurity. Older adults who were male, younger, lowly educated, socially disadvantaged, in rural areas, and outside the Northern region were most vulnerable to food insecurity, controlling for various confounders. Additionally, low economic status, no occupational pension, currently working, social isolation, physical impairment, functional disabilities, poor self-rated health, and arthritis were associated with an increased risk of food insecurity. Conclusions: More active food assistance programs catering to older adults and a better provision of economic and social security are warranted to establish a food-secure environment for rapidly aging India. Full article

The resource-based city is a type of city with pronounced ageing problems. Correctly grasping the socio-economic adaptability to ageing in resource-based cities can help actively guide the direction of urban development and build a new socio-economic order for the elderly. This paper first selects 125 resource-based cities in China from 2000 to 2020 for characteristic analysis, and finds that resource-based cities are characterized by fast growth rate and a large proportion of ageing population, deep ageing, large regional differences and uncoordinated ageing development with regional socio-economic development levels. The research objective of this article is to explore the temporal evolution characteristics, spatial patterns, agglomeration characteristics, and factors hindering the socio-economic adaptability to ageing in resource-based cities in China from 2000 to 2020. Therefore, an indicator system for assessing the socio-economic adaptability to ageing was constructed, and the improved entropy-weighted TOPSIS model was used to measure the socio-economic adaptability to ageing in 113 resource-based cities in China from 2000 to 2020. The spatio-temporal variation characteristics of the socio-economic adaptability to ageing in resource-based cities were analyzed by descriptive analysis and Moran’s index, and the main obstacle dimensions and obstacle indicators were clarified by the obstacle factor model. The findings can be summarized as follows: Temporal Analysis: Over the timeframe assessed, the socio-economic adaptability of ageing in resource cities demonstrates a consistent year-on-year improvement. The spatial clustering pattern exhibits a noteworthy trend of “significant-significant-insignificant”. Spatial Pattern: Examining the spatial arrangement from 2000 to 2020, areas with medium-low and low adaptability are prominently concentrated in Eastern China and Northeastern China, while regions with medium-high and high adaptability are focal in Northern China and Eastern China. Hebei Province and its neighboring provinces consistently display H-H clustering, contrasting with the Southwestern regions that persistently exhibit L-L clustering. Obstacle Degree Analysis: Across the 2000 to 2020 period, dimensions related to economic development, social participation, and social security consistently emerge as the primary obstacles. Notably, the top 12 average annual obstacle indicators are selected, and within economic development dimension all 4 indicators predominate as the key obstacles. Within the social participation dimension, tertiary sector value added and total retail sales of consumer goods per capita feature as primary obstacles. Regarding social security, impediments are primarily associated with the ratio of Medicare coverage, the ratio of pension coverage, alongside the development level of the social security sector. In the domain of service provision, key obstacle indicators include park area per capita, number of books in public libraries per 100 inhabitants, and public trams and buses per 10,000 inhabitants. Full article