Chronic Condition Change and Its Longitudinal Association with Health Care Utilization Among Rural Older Adults: Intergenerational Financial Support As a Possible Moderator?

Overview

Journal BMC Geriatr

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2024 Oct 15

PMID 39407124

Authors

Shijun Yang

Tingting Gao

Jie Li

Peipei Fu

Zhao Dan

Yi Wang

Chengchao Zhou

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of chronic conditions increases rapidly among older population. However, it is unclear how different chronic conditions progression contributes to the health care utilization, and whether intergenerational support modified this relationship. This study aimed to explore the longitudinal link between chronic condition progression and health care utilization, and examine whether intergenerational financial support is a moderator in this relationship among Chinese rural older people.

Methods: Data was derived from the Shandong Rural Elderly Health Cohort (SREHC), which was conducted from 2019 to 2020. A total of 2,785 participants were included in this study. Kruskal-Wallis rank tests and generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were employed to analyze the association between chronic condition progression and health care utilization. Moderating effect analysis was performed using GEE model and margins plot.

Results: Older people with progressive chronic conditions used more outpatient (no chronic condition to emerging multimorbidity: OR = 1.83; p = 0.028; one chronic condition to emerging multimorbidity: OR = 2.17; p < 0.001; remained multimorbidity while chronic conditions increased: OR = 3.26; p < 0.001) and inpatient services (no chronic condition to emerging multimorbidity: OR = 2.76; p < 0.001; one chronic condition to emerging multimorbidity: OR = 3.40; p < 0.001; remained multimorbidity while chronic conditions increased: OR = 5.32; p < 0.001) than those remained no chronic conditions. Intergenerational financial support may alleviate outpatient utilization of older people with multimorbidity (remained multimorbidity × intergenerational financial support: OR = 0.40; p = 0.013; remained multimorbidity while chronic conditions increased × intergenerational financial support: OR = 0.35; p = 0.019).

Conclusion: This study showed that the changes of chronic condition were associated with health care utilization, and intergenerational financial support moderated this relationship. It is vital to continuously monitor and timely intervene the chronic condition progression among rural older people.

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