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Quality of housing and association with ADL situation among older adults in China’s rural contexts

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Abstract

The aging of the rural population is an increasingly influential factor affecting China's social and economic development. By extracting 5450 samples of “rural older adults” with the corresponding entries of housing quality and activities of daily living from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2013, the study yielded an overview of the seniors’ housing conditions in China’s rural areas. Binary logistic regression analysis was applied to explore the potential association between three aspects of housing characteristics (general features, indoor equipment, and spatial composition) and the ADL status of the rural older adults, revealing that the building age, the building style of independent or compound, the type of structure, and whether there are flush toilets and telephone connections indoors, present a significant association with the ADL status. Possible interpretations of the results and strategies for improving the living conditions for the aging rural population were discussed. This study attempts to bridge the knowledge gap related to the housing conditions of seniors in rural China, thereby providing references for planners and policymakers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to the insightful comments from anonymous reviewers that helped to improve the article considerably.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number Grant No. 52008241.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No.800 Dongchuan Rd, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Ziqi Zhang

  2. Institute of Architectural Design and Theoretical Research, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Zhu Wang

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  1. Ziqi Zhang
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Zhang, Z., Wang, Z. Quality of housing and association with ADL situation among older adults in China’s rural contexts. J Hous and the Built Environ 37, 909–925 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-021-09869-2

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