Abstract
The health of senior citizens is an important concern in the context of an aging population in China. Based on changes to and the characteristics of senior health in the new era, it is both important and necessary to promote research on senior health from an interdisciplinary perspective. An analytical framework that takes in society, behavior, psychology, environment, and genetic inheritance is the basis for interdisciplinary research on senior health. The core topics of this research focus on the factors that influence senior health, the allocation of resources for senior health, senior health equity, and the relationship of senior health to the labor market. At the same time, research on senior health is still subject to various constraints, such as the failure to develop a theoretical framework, insufficient depth and breadth of research practices, the need to better integrate the health data platforms, the relative weakness of human resources training efforts, and insufficient links and cooperation between government, enterprises, universities, and research institutes. In the future, comprehensively improving the research level of senior health in China must be a priority. A theoretical system for interdisciplinary research of senior health in China must be developed, and the focus of research should be in line with the national conditions. A unified sharing platform for data resources must be built, innovative training programs developed for human resources, and interconnections between government, enterprises, universities, and research institutes must be strengthened.
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Notes
A feature of China’s population aging, which means that the aging level of rural areas is higher than that in urban areas.
A national development objective proposed by CPC, which requires more developed national economy and better systems by the centenary of CPC (2021) and the basic realization of modernization and the establishment of a prosperous, strong, democratic and civilized socialist country by the centenary of the founding of the PRC (2049).
The search expression “TI = senior * health OR TI = aging * health” was used to obtain sample articles from the CNKI database. Because the literature screening method proposed by Xiang and Wang (2019) was used here, the articles on senior health as selected for this paper diverge from those focused on medical or health care. That is, these articles are not focused on medical issues related to the various physical diseases that afflict the elderly. The specific search scope covered Social Sciences Series II, Economics and Management Sciences, Information Technology and some subcategories of Medical and Health Technology (i.e., Medical and Health Policies, Laws and Regulations; Medical Education and Marginal Medical Disciplines; and Preventive Medicine and Hygiene). A search for all articles published prior to December 31, 2020, found 1,319 articles. After excluding invalid articles such as review papers, news notices, general catalogues of journals, and editor’s messages, a total of 1,217 sample articles were obtained for analysis.
Based on the CSSCI journal catalog of Nanjing University (2019–2020), including the extended edition.
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Wei, X. Research on the health of senior citizens from an interdisciplinary perspective: framework, core topics, and prospects. China popul. dev. stud. 5, 345–362 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42379-021-00098-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42379-021-00098-2