Table 1.

Characteristics of elderly by living arrangements, China (2012)

Characteristics	Total		Empty-nest		Non-empty-nest		P
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Observations	4469	100.0	2667	59.7	1802	40.3
Predisposing factors
Gender							0.000
Male	2078	46.5	1286	48.2	792	44.0
Female	2391	53.5	1381	51.8	1010	56.0
Age							0.000
60−	2629	58.8	1445	54.2	1184	65.7
70−	1429	32.0	968	36.3	461	25.6
80+	411	9.2	254	9.5	157	8.7
Marriage status							0.000
Married	3511	78.6	2210	82.9	1301	72.2
Others	958	21.4	457	17.1	501	27.8
Education							0.100
Primary or below	3145	70.4	1849	69.3	1296	71.9
Junior	713	16.0	431	16.2	282	15.6
High or above	611	13.7	387	14.5	224	12.4
Enabling factors
Residence							0.083
Urban	2305	51.6	1404	52.6	901	50.0
Rural	2164	48.4	1263	47.4	901	50.0
Living arrangements					NAb
Empty-nest single			457	17.1
Empty-nest couple			2210	82.9
Low income household a							0.385
Yes	331	7.4	205	7.7	126	7.0
No	4138	92.6	2462	92.3	1676	93.0
Insurance c							0.000
None	193	4.3	117	4.4	76	4.2
MIUE	1168	26.1	776	29.1	392	21.8
MIUR	545	12.2	327	12.3	218	12.1
NCMS	2518	56.3	1417	53.1	1101	61.1
Others	45	1.0	30	1.1	15	0.8
Need factors
Self-rated health							0.000
Good	2277	51.0	1278	47.9	999	55.4
Moderate	1497	33.5	939	35.2	558	31.0
Bad	695	15.6	450	16.9	245	13.6
Illness in the past 2 week							0.000
Yes	2896	64.8	1830	68.6	1066	59.2
No	1573	35.2	837	31.4	736	40.8
NCD in the past 6 months d							0.000
Yes	2930	65.6	1809	67.8	1121	62.2
No	1539	34.4	858	32.2	681	37.8

^aLow income household: In Chinese, we call it “Dibaohu”, which is identified as a low-income household and subsidized by local bureau of civil affairs

^bNA: not applicable

^cMIUE: Medical insurance for urban employees scheme; MIUR: Medical insurance for urban residents scheme; NCMS: New cooperative medical scheme

^dNCD: Non-communicable chronic disease