Objective: To investigate utilization status of medical, nursing and elderly care service for senior citizens living in high buildings without elevators and to discuss relevant problems and countermeasures in Jingan District of Shanghai.
Methods: Purposive sampling method was adopted to select Linfen Road Street, Pengpu Xincun Street and Pengpu Town Street which the dense residential buildings without elevators were in from 14 streets of Jingan District in Shanghai. Senior citizens aged 80 years old or older living on the third floor and above in residential buildings without elevators were selected randomly in accordance with a ratio of 1:1:1: from these three streets. In March 2017, a survey was conducted using self-designed survey questionnaire through in-home visits among these senior citizens. The questionnaire was used to investigate the basic information of respondents and their utilization status of medical, nursing and elderly care service in last month. A total of 224 questionnaires were distributed and all of them were returned. The effective recovery rate was 100.0%.
Results: Among 224 senior citizens, 71.9% (161/224) of them used medical service; 60.3% (135/224) of them used nursing service; 25.4% (57/224) of them used elderly care service in last month. Among those who used medical service, 72.7% (117/161) of them used outpatient service and 98.1% (158/161) of them used medication service. And 77.6% (125/161) of them had difficulty in going downstairs. Among those who used nursing service, 40.0% (54/135) of them thought they had great financial pressure on nursing service and 68.1% (92/135) nursing service was provided by family members and relatives. Among those who used elderly care service, 39.6% (21/53) of them used the marketized housekeeping and meal delivery. Among 224 senior citizens, emergency contacts were respondents themselves accounting for 52.3% (104/199).
Conclusion: Senior citizens living in high buildings without elevators in Jingan District of Shanghai have higher utilization rate of medical service and nursing service, while the utilization rate of elderly care service is relatively low. At present, the living arrangements for some senior citizens are unreasonable. Heavy financial pressure and poor quality of nursing service, insufficient utilization rate of socialized elderly care service and inadequate emergency preparedness are still remaining problems. It is recommended that the provision of medical, nursing and elderly care service for senior citizens living in high buildings without elevators should be improved as well as a long-term emergency response mechanism.