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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (2): 381-392.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.310

• Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Coupling and coordination pattern and influencing factors of home community elderly care and institutional elderly care in China

LIU Hao1(), LI Fulian2, WANG Sheng1()   

  1. 1. School of Public Administration, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, Shandong, China
    2. School of Management, Shandong Technology and Business University, Yantai 264003, Shandong, China
  • Received:2025-05-28 Revised:2025-07-02 Online:2026-02-25 Published:2026-02-27
  • Contact: WANG Sheng E-mail:lhsdau@163.com;happywangsheng@163.com

Abstract:

Promoting the coordinated development of different elderly care models is an effective way to optimize the allocation of elderly care service resources in our country. Based on panel data from 2018 to 2022, this study empirically analyzes spatiotemporal coupling coordination and influencing factors of home community elderly care and institutional elderly care in China using a coupling coordination model, a geographic detector, and other methods. The results indicate that (1) The coupling coordination degree and relative development degree between home community elderly care and institutional elderly care are generally on the rise. The coupling coordination degree has shown a continuous improvement trend over time. The relative development degree of home community elderly care is gradually becoming clear with the trend of “synchronous development>advanced development>lagging development”. (2) The number of provinces entering the coordination stage (III and IV) continues to increase and shows an evolutionary pattern of gradually spreading from the central and eastern regions to the western and northeastern regions in space. The phenomenon of stage transition in relative development is more pronounced, and the western region has significantly more provinces in transition than the central and eastern regions. (3) The coupling coordination degree has a positive spatial correlation and a fluctuating upward trend. The correlation strength shows a spatial pattern of “western>eastern>central>northeast”, with mostly HH-type and LL-type clustering. (4) Organizational strength, elderly care demand, and technological level are the main influencing factors of the coupling coordination degree. This study’s findings can provide a theoretical basis and policy recommendations for addressing structural contradictions in China’s elderly care service supply and for innovating the development of the elderly care policy system.

Key words: home community elderly care, institutional elderly care, elderly care services, coupling coordination, influencing factors