Family support, financial needs, and health care needs of rural elderly in China: a field study.

This study examined family support, financial needs, and health care needs of 100 elderly persons in a rural county in China. Data revealed that immediate family members helped elderly persons with activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, and that adult children also provided financial assistance to most of the elderly. However, only eight percent of the elderly persons reported that they had adequate financial resources. In the four villages surveyed, collective health care systems had collapsed in the early 1980's. Due to high costs of health care and the absence of government support, almost two thirds of the elderly persons had unmet needs for health care. In addition, elderly persons who reported poor health were more likely to have unmet financial and health care needs.