Provision of Health Service and Community Care for the Elderly: Intergenerational Roles and Equity

Facing an ageing population, priorities in elderly care has changed from a narrow focus on acute and secondary care to a broader framework of disease prevention and community care which is founded on a lifecourse approach from an individual patient as unit. Living well in the community for older people requires a supportive environment and intergenerational support. Thus, understanding what and how intergenerational factors mediate the quality of life especially in the lifecourse approach is crucial so that policy-makers are better equipped to formulate policies on healthy ageing.

This project aims to explore intergenerational roles of different stakeholders and equity in health services and community care for older people from the perspectives of service delivery, financing and policy across different health systems in different countries by conducting a systematic literature review and cross-national comparative analysis.

There are three main research questions:

1) what is the intergenerational role in health service delivery and health financing;

2) what are the issues relating to intergenerational equity;

3) what are the barriers and facilitators for intergenerational interaction that may contribute to sustainable health systems in an ageing population?

The research team has done a scoping review on identified keywords to extract relevant information of various databases in medical areas, social science and grey literature between 1980 and 2016 for providing insights on the research questions. Screening over 3000 articles, the team identified several themes relating to the intergenerationality in the health system. Further works will be synthesized extracted information from the relevant studies for the research questions.

The findings will help:

1) identify knowledge gaps on the intergeneration relationship that impacts on health service delivery, financing and policy,
2) understand the value of intergenerational solidarity, and
3) provide insights on similarities and differences between countries with various income levels and cultural context.

These findings will be useful in formulating policy recommendations, maximizing optimal health development and maintaining sustainability of health systems internationally. Equally important, the findings are expected to contribute to the development of a lifecourse approach from a new paradigm that will expand the views from different stages of an individual to transitions between different generations. This would strengthen the approach on the population health and provide an alternative way on sustainability towards healthy ageing.

Outcomes

In 2019

Dr Gary Chung (The University of Auckland) prepared submission of grant proposal. The project title is “Exploration of cultural identity, intergenerational solidarity and care in Hong Kong population after the June 2019 social unrest”.

In 2018

Academic Publications

• Chan, Crystal Y. (7 November 2018). The relationship of caregiver burden with formal and informal care in community-dwelling people with dementia: A cross-cultural comparison. Oral presentation at RANZCP FPOA/ASAD 2018, Melbourne, Australia.
• Wong, Eliza LY. (2018) Thinking intergenerationally: intergenerational solidarity, health and active aging in Hong Kong. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships 16(4), 478-492.

Other

• Joint supervision on two postgraduate students: a manuscript has been submitted for review process.
• Another manuscript is also in the process of preparation.
• A research visit with Dr Gary Cheung (The University of Auckland)

In 2017

Scholarly events

• Investigators’ workshop, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2-3 March 2017, 12 academics from the research team attended and presented their researches.

• The 49th Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health Conference, Yonsei University in Icheon of Republic of South Korea, 17-19 Aug 2017, over 100 international participants attended and Prof Eliza LY Wong presented the results of funded project “Role and Challenges of Intergenerationality in Enhancing the Health of Ageing Populations”.
• Ageing and New Media Symposium 2017, Perth, 1-2 December 2017, over 50 international scholars attended and presented “Expectations, Needs and Loneliness: A Case Study of Transborder Care in Hong Kong”