《当代中国人口与发展》2023年第2期

Du Peng Negative population growth and population ageing in China

The first characteristic of “Chinese Path to Modernization” is “the modernization of a huge population”, which refers to that China’s modernization is historically making 1.4 billion people live a prosperous and dignified life. Meanwhile, the demographic characteristics such as negative population growth, declining birth rate and population ageing will accompany Chinese modernization for a long time. In the face of long-term negative population growth expectations, how to deal with negative population growth and how to actively coping with population ageing has become the focus of research. Academic research has shifted from focusing on population quantity in the past to focusing on population quality and structure, hoping to give full play to the advantages of human resources, transform the demographic dividend into talents dividend, and promote high-quality population development.

The launch of this special issue aims to explore how different countries respond to negative population growth and population ageing, and then hopes to find out how China can learn from the world. This editorial first introduces recent changes in China’s population and current research priorities and then introduces the four research papers in this special issue.

Website of the paper https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42379-023-00138-z

Stuart Gietel-Basten Population aging in China from a multidimensional, comparative perspective

Abstract In recent years, perhaps more than any others, changes in China’s population have been under the spotlight. Issues relating to population aging and stagnation/decline have been presented as a near existential threat to the political, social, and economic future of the country. The responses to these challenges have typically revolved around seeking a ‘demographic response’—namely more babies. These responses, however, are deaf to both the challenges of family formation in contemporary China, as well as the timespan needed for such policies to affect already stressed systems and institutions. Rather, policies which reformed such stressed systems and address the lifecycle challenges and opportunities of population aging are urgently required. This requires an improved, multidimensional ‘problem definition’ as well as considering comparative approaches to facilitate policy learning. This commentary explores these issues and identifies how the papers which make up this special issue of China Population and Development Studies contribute to developing our understanding of aging from a multidimensional and comparative perspective.

Keywords China·Population·Aging·Mortality·Longevity·Social policy

Website of the paper https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42379-023-00137-0

Shaohua Zhan & Lingli Huang State familism in action: aging policy and intergenerational support in Singapore

Abstract Singapore started to tackle the challenges of an aging society in the 1980s after its fertility declined to sub-replacement levels. A core component of the city-state’s aging policy is to foster intergenerational support, which is based on the value of filial piety, harmonious intergenerational relations, and the elderly as a resource. This paper introduces the concept of state familism to capture Singapore’s comprehensive efforts to strengthen the role of the family in old-age support while promoting mutual assistance across generations. The relevant policies range from the Central Provident Fund, housing, taxation, to old-age support packages. These efforts distinguish Singapore from other Asian countries where the role of the family is sometimes stressed more in rhetoric than in action. State familism in Singapore has drawn criticisms as it is perceived as an attempt to reduce the government’s responsibility. In the recent decade, the Singapore state significantly increased direct financial support for the elderly while keeping the policy of fostering intergenerational support in place. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of Singapore’s state familism for China and other countries.

Keywords State familism·Aging policy·Intergenerational support·Singapore

Website of the paper https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42379-023-00132-5

Alla Ivanova, Elena Zemlyanova, Tamara Sabgayda, Victoria Semyonova, Aleksandr Zubko & Irina Kryukova Demographic ageing, health status and life quality of the elderly in Russia

Abstract Within the context of the national policy on the elderly, the paper presents trends in demographic ageing, health and life quality of the elderly in Russia. Social and political consequences of the XX century have resulted in significant fluctuations in the number of individual generations, forming a long-term fluctuating trend in demographic ageing in Russia. These historical disproportions have overlapped with regional variations in ageing rates due to significant inter-regional population movements, rural–urban migration, substantial gender differences in trends and scales of mortality and fertility dynamics. As a result, levels of demographic ageing in Russia vary more than three-fold, worsening in females and rural population. Ageing-related problems are aggravated by unsatisfactory health status of the elderly, manifested in high burden of chronic diseases (especially cardiovascular diseases), leading to life restrictions up to loss of the ability to self-care. High-tech cardiac surgery contributes to life prolongation and improved physical and psychological functioning. However, during rehabilitation, most patients are reluctant to change their unhealthy lifestyle associated with cardio pathology. Polymorbidity and psychoactive substance abuse (in males) are the risk factors of suicidal behaviour, while accessibility of medications, including sleeping pills, firearms, etc. contributes to realization of this risk. Living conditions of the elderly and their access to quality social services are important components of wellbeing in terms of health. Despite satisfactory living conditions, the situation significantly differs by type (urban/rural) and size of the settlement. Maintaining microsocial contacts with children, family and friends is a powerful source of psychological comfort and social wellbeing.

Keywords Population ageing·National policy on the elderly·Age structure·Share of the elderly·Physical wellbeing·Psychological wellbeing·Social wellbeing·Polymorbidity·Comorbidities

Website of the paper https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42379-023-00133-4

Siying Lyu, Chunyong Chen & Guillaume Marois Contributions by age and cause to life expectancy gap between China and South Korea, 1990–2019: a decomposition analysis

Abstract In the past 30 years, the life expectancy in China continues to rise yet at a slower pace because of, in large part, the heavy burden of chronic diseases on older age groups. Based on data obtained from the United Nations World Population Prospects 2019 and the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, this study applies Arriaga’s decomposition method to decompose the age/cause-specific contributions to life expectancy gap between China and South Korea during 1990–2019, which could provide understanding on mortality patterns and heavy burden by chronic disease resulting from an aging society. The study has found that the life expectancy gap between these two countries for females has remained constant, while that of males has been increasing during the same period. Another finding is that non-communicable diseases, like cardiovascular diseases among the elderly (aged 60+), explain a large and enlarging part of the life expectancy gap between China and South Korea, especially among males. In addition, maternal and neonatal disorders among children (age group 1–4ys) contribute less and less to life expectancy gap. Those observations suggest a convergence of mortality pattern among younger age groups as well as the continued existence of substantial gaps among older age groups. Additionally, given the precedent of South Korea, China should also take suicide as another issue with greater attention in the future. Finally, this study concludes by suggesting targeted public health policies to reduce mortality in certain age groups and save more lives from certain diseases.

Keywords Life expectancy gap·Cause of death·Aging·China

Website of the paper https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42379-023-00134-3

Luchan Liu, Ruili Zhang & Jinjia Huang The promoting effect of health education on medical treatment seeking behavior in the context of healthy China: based on the comparison of migrants and registered local residents

Abstract The migrants are the important participant and contributor in China's economic and social construction, but they still have many restrictions on their access to health services. This paper analyzes the differences between the migrants and the registered local residents in looking for medical treatment and explores the relationship between health education and medical treatment seeking behavior, so as to find an appropriate way to improve the health level of the migrants. By using the comparative survey data of the floating population and registered population in 2017 and establishing the binary Logit model, this paper finds that the health education has a promoting effect on medical treatment seeking behaviors. In terms of the influence mechanism of health education on medical treatment seeking behavior, the mediating effect of social participation factors is stronger in the migrants’ group because making new friends and learning about local public health resources through health education is of great significance to the migrants. It is proposed to expand the coverage of health education among migrant groups and improve the accessibility of health education. At the same time, public medical and health services should be used as a window to guide the migrants to seek medical treatment in an orderly manner while assisting their social integration.

Keywords Health education·Migrants·Medical treatment seeking behavior·Healthy China

Website of the paper https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42379-022-00125-w