Merril Silverstein

Population Aging and Preferences for Long-Term Care in China

Merril Silverstein, PhD, is inaugural holder of the Marjorie Cantor Chair in Aging Studies at Syracuse University where he serves as professor in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Human Development and Family Science. He received his doctorate in sociology from Columbia University, after which he was on the faculty of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. He directs the Longitudinal Study of Generations and the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in Anhui Province. His research primarily focuses on aging in the context of family life within the United States, China and Europe.

In this presentation, Dr. Silverstein review long-term care challenges facing China in light of its aging population, increased longevity, growing disease burden, and low fertility. This “perfect storm” of demographic factors have put into sharp relief the urgency to formulate policies that serve frail older adults in a nation where filial piety remains a robust but weakening cultural norm. However, the perspectives of older people are rarely considered in such discussions, despite that fact that they will be the consumers of any long-term care system that evolves in China. To address this issue, he uses national data from 10,000 individuals 60+ in urban and rural China to assess their preferred source of care, and willingness to use long-term care facilities—focusing on differences by urban/rural location, family size, and the presence of sons. He concludes by discussing the importance of economic resources as a factor implicitly determining the quality of care available to older persons in China.