FLOWS OF SOCIAL SUPPORT AND HEALTH-STATUS AMONG OLDER PERSONS IN CHINA

As a consequence of the political, social, and economic developments i n contemporary China, there have been considerable changes in the patt erns of flows of social support between Chinese older people and their significant others. There is evidence that Chinese elders are now und er strong pressure to provide more social support, instrumental suppor t in particular, to their children and other relatives while they rece ive less. Such a change in the direction of flows of social support ha s been reported to worsen the elders' health. This paper describes the general pattern of social support both to and from the Chinese elders , using data of a probability sample survey conducted in Wuhan, China in 1991. The association between social support, both receiving and pr oviding, and old-age health status is also analysed within a multivari ate framework. The results of two probit models suggest that emotional support received plays a crucial role in affecting an elder's health status, while instrumental support received does not have explicit imp acts. In addition, there is no empirical evidence that increased instr umental support from elders has worsened their health status as report ed.