Factors Associated with the Acceptance of a Novel Integrated Care Service by Community-Dwelling Elderly in Chongqing, China

Background: Medical Union is a novel model of integrated care services. At present, the Chinese government encourages the development of health care services for aged people provided by Medical Union which may help make effective use of limited medical resources in China. Purpose: This study aims at examining the prevalence of and associated factors affecting the acceptance of a novel integrated care service by community-dwelling elderly. Methods: We extracted raw data generated from 1,180 community residents over 60 years old and performed binary logistic regression analyses to predict odds of the acceptance in Chongqing, China. Using Anderson’s health behavioral model, we examined three groups of predictive factors: (1) predisposing factors (e.g. social demographic information), (2) enabling factors (e.g. health insurance status), (3) need factors (e.g. health status). Results: The application of this novel integrated care service was explained better by enabling factors than other predictive factors. In the best explanatory model (model 3), one predisposing factor (degree of education), one enabling factor (insurance type), and five need factors (self-reported health status, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and disability) were variables considered as the significant factors affecting the acceptance of the novel integrated care service by community-dwelling elderly in Chongqing, china. Conclusion: This study provides an empirical understanding of the equity of the access to a novel integrated care service for older adults who live in communities. Our findings advocate that primary health institutions should play an important role in health education. Advanced policies are needed to protect physically and economically vulnerable groups.