Spatial clustering and socio-economic influence factors of health status of elderly populations in mainland China

Objective To examine spatial clustering and socio-economic influence factors of health status of elderly populations in mainland China,and to provide references for the formulation of relevant policies.Methods Data on health status of elderly populations (aged 60 years and older) were extracted from the dataset of China's 6th National Population Census in 2010.The spatial clustering of health status of the older people was analyzed and geographically weighted regression (GWR) was applied to explore socio-economic influence factors of health status.Results The results showed that spatial aggregation existed in the distribution of health status of elderly population at province or municipality level,with the Moran's I index of 0.132.Jiangsu,Zhejiang,and Fujian province were the regions with high-high clustering and Xinjiang,Tibet were the regions with low-low clustering.GWR results showed that gross domestic production (GDP) and the number of medical institutions were the main social and economic factors influencing the health of the elderly,with the adjusted R² of 0.885.The adjusted R² were 0.822-0.878 for the eastern,0.828-0.866 for the central,0.890-0.907 for the northeastern,and 0.852-0.941 for the western region,respectively,with higher values for eastern and central regions and lower values in western and northeastern regions.The values of parameter β for GDP and the number of medical institutions ranged between 34.5-80.4 for the eastern and central regions and 23.3-46.4 for the western and northeastern regions.Conclusion Spatial clustering of health status of older populations exits in mainland China.The role of macroeconomic factors and health resources in different regions are different for the health of the elderly in various regions.The government should develop targeted health promotion strategies for the elderly.