The Impact of Informal Care on Elderly People's Physical Health Outcomes

摘要

The empirical study of informal care on care receivers' physical health has not been gained comprehensive attention. We aim to investigate the effects of informal care on the physical health of elderly people in China. We pure the potential endogeneity of informal care time by introducing the distance from the care receiver's to their child's whose is closest to where his elderly parents live, and the communication frequency between receivers and their children as instrument variables. The probability for blood urea nitrogen at higher risk level can be reduced 0.6%. For creatinine, elder people's probability at higher risk level can be decreased 0.2%. The cystatin C at higher risk level can be reduced 0.4%. The results show that the informal care can improve the elderly people's physical health by driving their blood biomarkers into lower risk level.