老年失能的配偶溢出效应及性别差异研究

Gender Difference in Spousal Spillover Effects of Elderly Disability

由于健康预期寿命增长滞后于预期寿命增长,中国老年失能问题严重,特别是女性老人的失能比例更高。但现有研究对老年失能性别差异的社会机制认识不足。家庭小型化、人口老龄化和年轻人口外流使越来越多的老年夫妻与子女分开生活。以往对失能老人的研究集中在个体或者代际层面,少有以老年夫妻为主体的研究,忽视了老年夫妻日常生活中可能存在的失能性别分化。本文利用中国健康与养老追踪调查2015年和2018年数据分析老人失能情况对其配偶存在的溢出效应以及该效应在机制和结果上的性别差异。结果表明丈夫失能会显著提高女性老人的失能风险,而男性老人的失能风险却未显著受到妻子失能的影响。受照料的性别文化影响,尽管女性老人失能比例更高,但其在失能配偶照料上投入的时间要比男性老人长。此外,丈夫失能会对老年夫妻家庭经济水平造成负面影响,妻子失能则没有显著影响。总体而言,性别要素贯穿老年失能分化过程中,并通过照料和收入两种社会机制导致女性老人比男性老人更易受到配偶失能的影响。因此,失能老人相关的家庭安排和政策设计有必要考虑老年夫妻间的依存关系,特别要关注老年女性可能因老伴失能而面临的一系列生存困境。建议以长期护理保险和家庭照料补贴等政策缓解女性老人因配偶失能而遭受的溢出风险。

Due to the lag in healthy life expectancy compared to overall life expectancy,the issue of dis⁃abled elderly individuals in China is becoming increasingly severe,especially among women.However,there is still insufficient understanding of the societal mechanisms contributing to gender disparities in elderly disability.Factors such as declining family size,population aging,and the migration of younger generations have resulted in more elderly couples living separately from their children.Historically,research on disabled elderly individuals has primarily focused on the individual or intergenerational aspects,with limited studies centered around elderly couples,thus overlooking potential gender differen⁃tials in disability within their daily lives.Using data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2015 and 2018,the spillover effects of disability suffered by the elderly on their own spouse are ana⁃lyzed,as are the gender differences in the mechanisms and outcomes of these spillover effects.The findings reveal that the disability of husbands significantly elevates the risk of disability among elderly women,while the disability risk for elderly men remains unaffected by their wives’disabilities.Under the influence of culture on the responsibility of care,the elderly woman spend more time caring for their own disabled spouse than the elderly man,although a larger proportion of them have disability.In addition,if the hus⁃band gets disabled,their family is affected negatively in terms of finance.However,there is no such impact if the wife is disabled.Overall,gender plays a significant role in the differentiation of elderly disability,operating through two key societal mechanisms:caregiving and income.These mechanisms make the elderly women more susceptible to the impact of disability suffered by their spouse compared to the elderly man.Therefore,it is necessary to take into account the interdependence between the elderly couples in family planning and policy-making related to the disabled elderly.Also,more attention shall be paid to the difficulties that elderly women may face due to the disability of their spouse.Finally,it is suggested in this article that the policies such as long-term care insurance and family care subsidies can be imple⁃mented to reduce the spillover risks faced by the elderly woman due to the disability that their spouse has.