CHINA’S population of senior citizens is growing rapidly, putting immense strain on the country’s social welfare system.

Conditions for the elderly remain particularly challenging in the countryside, where many older individuals lead financially precarious lives marked by poor health and isolation, according to research results published early this week.

“This is a big problem that China is now facing on its way to development,” says Zhang Xiong, dean of the humanities department at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, on the expanding social burden posed by the country’s senior citizens.

“It will be impossible for the country to achieve sustainable development without tackling this problem first. And the problem is now more prominent and urgent in rural areas, where 15.4 percent of the population is elderly,” he adds.

Over the summer last year, researchers at Zhang’s department conducted a large-scale field investigation on living condition of the elderly in rural China. A report on their findings was released on Tuesday during a seminar at the university.

The investigation was based predominantly on surveys which quarried elder respondents on items related to health, personal finances, social lives and access to services. The team visited 731 villages in 31 provinces, cities and regions, ultimately gathering data from 10,421 completed questionnaires.

Limited income, a need for accessible medical and nursing services, and lack of emotional support from family members were among the most prominent problems mentioned by senior citizens in the countryside.

“The problems are quite similar regardless of province,” says associate professor Lu Feiyun, who led student teams conducting surveys in Shanghai’s suburban Qingpu District. “We had expected the lives of the rural elderly to be much better in big cities like Shanghai, but the results were quite the opposite. Aside from their higher pensions, rural people in some of Shanghai’s villages do not live better than those in other provinces.”

Making ends meet

Support from children, the rural pension system, land income and savings were mentioned as the four major sources of financial support for rural elderly, investigators have found.

Most respondents received money from more than one of these sources. Specifically, about 68 percent of them said they receive money from their children, while 53 percent received money from the rural pension insurance scheme, 51.4 percent derived income from their land and 34.3 percent were able to tap personal savings.

Less than 30 percent of respondents reported income from a source other than those mentioned above.

But while many got financial support from multiple channels, for the most part the funds derived from each source were relatively meager.

Only 9.9 percent of survey participants said they receive more than 300 yuan (US$48) per month from their children. Many said they receive financial support only on an irregular basis.

While many elderly people were quick to tell researchers about their children’s financial contributions, “when it came to the exact amount, the elderly realized that they were not getting that much,” explains Zhang Huxiang, a PhD candidate.

As for other sources of money, most elderly received between 55 and 550 yuan per month from the pension system. Meanwhile, incomes derived from land ranged from 800 yuan to 3,700 yuan per year. Only half had personal savings — of this group, the average amount socked away was 35,000 yuan.

As student survey conductor Tang Han wrote in her notes, one older man from Gong’an County in Hubei Province claimed that although he’s struggling to cover the expense of treating his kidney stones, heart disease and toxic parasites, he rarely gets money from his children working in cities.

The man said he understood the financial pressures on his children to support their own families and did not think it right to ask for money. He did, however, say he was grateful to receive 55 yuan per month from the national insurance system, but would prefer to receive more if possible.

“When I asked him how much would make him feel better, he told me with a shy smile that 100 yuan would be enough,” says Tang.

Health complications

High blood pressure, back pains, heart disease, hearing impairments and diabetes were the top five ailments reported by senior survey-takers.

Behind this broad picture, researchers noted regional divergences in these complaints. Higher rates of high blood pressure and diabetes were found among elderly in China’s eastern regions than in less-developed western areas, while heart disease was more commonly reported among northerners, according to PhD candidate Liu Changxi.

“Generally, improved living standards and unchanged traditional diet habits may have played an important role in the high occurrence rates of these ‘illnesses of affluence’,” says Liu, who explains that many villagers still rely on traditional diets rich in salt and fat.

Liu also attributes the prevalence of back pains to heavy physical labor in agriculture.

Just over two-thirds of elderly interviewees said they can live independently, while one-third reported difficulties taking care of themselves in certain aspects of life, including using public transport, making meals and bathing.

Yearning for good life

Many elderly expressed longing for the old days when big families lived together and children took care of parents during their latter years.

About 42.3 percent of the rural elderly choose “living together with children” as their preferred way to live. This was followed by “living alone or with spouse, with children nearby” (39.3 percent) and “living alone or with spouse, without children nearby” (16.3 percent). Only 1.3 percent of interviewees saw “living in a nursing home” as their ideal choice.

About 54.5 percent were “empty nesters,” with no sons or daughters to take care of them. Just over 11 percent said they live all by themselves.

“Labor force migration during China’s urbanization left large number of elderly alone in villages. This has left a deep impact on the older generations’ beliefs about ‘raising children to provide for old age’ (yang er fang lao),” says PhD candidate Zhang Miao.

One older woman in Shanghai’s Qingpu District could not help pouring out her sufferings with loneliness when student surveyors contacted her at home. She had been living alone for years since her husband died and her children relocated for work.

“We saw the helplessness in her eyes, all we could do was listening,” recalls Xu Yingnan, a student.

Even among those without children nearby to take care of them, most rural seniors were against the idea of living in a nursing home.

“Many elderly said that they wouldn’t be able to get used to life in a nursing home ... while some feared that it would create another financial burden on their children,” says Zhang Jiazhen, who conducted surveys in Qingpu District.

A general shame of being abandoned and the fear of their children being criticized were also among the top reasons for resistance.