Page 100 - IJPS-11-4

International Journal of
Population Studies Health disparities and older adults well-being in China

associated with membership in the Communist Party of Third, concerning the results of cognitive health (Table 4),
China. Many party members receive generous pension we observed that the cognitive ability of older-aged tends
benefits after retirement, tend to join medical insurance to improve with age in the model. However, we also found
schemes, and have access to long-term care resources. that the quadratic term of age has a statistically significant
Therefore, older-aged Communist Party of China members negative effect on their cognitive ability. This finding suggests
need not worry about their livelihoods after retirement. that after reaching a certain age, the cognitive ability of
To verify whether the physical health condition of surviving older-aged declines. In addition, on average, men
older-aged affects their mental health, we incorporated an exhibit significantly higher cognitive ability than women.
additional explanatory variable, “IADLs,” in model 4. Our In addition, socioeconomic status-related explanatory
results suggest that IADLs have a statistically significant variables demonstrate statistically significant and positive
positive effect on the mental health of the older adults. effects on the cognitive ability of the older adults.
This finding suggests that physically healthy older adults Compared to those who are illiterate, the older adults
are usually mentally healthy as well. Furthermore, upon with higher education levels demonstrate higher MMSE
incorporating IADLs into model 4, the adjusted R squared scores, indicating better cognitive ability. Regarding
increased by 0.044 compared to model 3. This result household location, irrespective of whether the older
confirms that physical health is indeed one of the important adults have urban or rural household registration, living
factors influencing the mental health of the older people. in cities is associated with better cognitive abilities

Table 4. Estimated results concerning cognitive health (Mini‑Mental State Examination)

Variables Model 5 Model 6
Coefficient SE Coefficient SE
Age 0.873 0.142*** 0.863 0.148***
Age square −0.006 0.001*** −0.006 0.001***
Gender 0.388 0.100*** 0.226 0.103**
Married 0.589 0.374 0.575 0.380
One-person household 0.118 0.360 0.107 0.366
Education level
Illiterate (reference)
Did not finish primary school 2.003 0.172*** 1.907 0.180***
Elementary school 3.188 0.170*** 2.973 0.177***
Middle school 3.920 0.179*** 3.702 0.186***
High school 4.497 0.205*** 4.230 0.212***
College degree and above 4.796 0.360*** 4.476 0.365***
Household location
Rural residence with urban household registration (reference)
Urban residence with rural household registration (1,1) 0.567 0.234** 0.543 0.239**
Urban residence with urban household registration (1,0) 1.271 0.200*** 1.107 0.204***
Rural residence with rural household registration (0,1) −0.220 0.188 −0.256 0.193
Communist Party of China member 0.539 0.132*** 0.451 0.133***
Having savings 0.579 0.094*** 0.494 0.096***
Living in the Yangtze River Delta or Pearl River Delta districts 0.133 0.146 0.035 0.150
Instrumental activities of daily living 0.703 0.139***
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale 0.056 0.008***
Constant −9.610 5.004* −10.919 5.197**
Number of observations 5,037 4,669
Adjusted R squared 0.252 0.261
Notes: ***Statistical significance at the 1% level. **Statistical significance at the 5% level. *Statistical significance at the 10% level.

Volume 11 Issue 4 (2025) 94 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2035