Current status on the ability of the elderly in rural China: implications for future nursing and policy

Background Aging is a global problem, and the ability assessment of the elderly plays an important role in the formulation of pension policies. It's necessary to evaluate the ability of the elderly in rural China to provide insights into future nursing care and policy making. Methods The elderly in 20 rural villages were selected by convenience sampling. We used "Elderly Ability Evaluation Form" issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China as survey tool. The characteristics and score differences of the elderly of different ability level were compared and analyzed. And logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify the potential risk factors for disability in the elderly. Results A total of 2,878 elders were included, of which there were 1,916 elders with intact ability, 866 elders with mild disability, 42 elders with moderate disability, 54 elders with severe disability. The incidence of disability among respondents was 33.43%. There were significantly statistical differences in the dimensions of activities of daily living, mental state, perception and communication, and social participation among elders with intact ability, mild, moderate and severe disability (all P<0.05). The age, education level, marital status and living situations were all corrected to the scores on the activities of daily living, mental state, perception and communication, and social participation among elders (all P<0.05), and the elderly with age ≥75 years, illiteracy, unmarried and live alone had higher risk for disability (all P<0.05). Conclusions The current situation of the ability level of the elderly in rural China seems to be worrying, and it's necessary to establish a long-term nursing care system and aging policy to meet the needs of the elderly with regards to those potential influencing factors.