隔代照料对中老年人健康的影响研究——基于CHARLS (2018)数据

A Study of the Impact of Intergenerational Caregiving on the Health of Middle-Aged and Older Adults—Based on CHARLS (2018) Data

摘要: 本文基于2018年中国健康与养老追踪调查数据，以自评健康状况和身体功能障碍得分作为身体健康衡量指标，以抑郁量表得分作为心理健康衡量指标，使用OLS回归和Probit回归探究了隔代照料对我国中老年人的身体健康和心理健康的影响，还利用倾向得分匹配估计克服了由于自我选择所产生的内生性问题，最后使用基于CART算法的分类决策树模型分别探究隔代照料对不同类型的中老年人健康的影响情况。根据研究结果可知，中国存在普遍的隔代照料情况，且还存在许多过度照料的现象；提供隔代照料对于中老年人的身体健康和心理健康有显著的改善作用；适当程度的隔代照料能够有益于中老年人的身心健康，过度照料会导致其身心健康变差；对于收入较低、文化水平较高、喜欢社交活动的城乡中老年人，提供隔代照料有益于身体健康；对于收入中等且无社交的农村男性中老年人和收入中等的未婚城乡女性中老年人，提供隔代照料能够提高其心理健康状况。

Abstract: Based on data from the 2018 China Health and Aging Tracking Survey, this paper explores the im-pact of intergenerational caregiving on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people in China using OLS regression and Probit regression with self-assessed health status and physical dysfunction scores as the physical health measures and depression scale scores as the mental health measures. The propensity score matching estimation was also used to overcome the endogeneity problem due to self-selection, and finally, a categorical decision tree model based on the CART algorithm was used to investigate the effects of intergenerational caregiving on the health of different types of middle-aged and elderly people respectively. According to the results of the study, intergenerational caregiving is common in China, and there are many cases of excessive caregiving; the provision of intergenerational caregiving has a significant effect on the physical and mental health of the middle-aged and the elderly; an appropriate level of intergenerational care-giving can be beneficial to the physical and mental health of the middle-aged and the elderly, while excessive caregiving will lead to poor physical and mental health; the provision of intergenerational caregiving can benefit the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly people who have lower incomes, have higher cultural levels, and are fond of socializing. For rural and urban mid-dle-aged and elderly people with lower incomes and higher literacy levels who enjoy social activities, the provision of intergenerational care is beneficial to their physical health; for rural male mid-dle-aged and elderly people with medium incomes who do not socialize and for unmarried urban and rural female middle-aged and elderly people with medium incomes, the provision of intergen-erational care improves their mental health.