BackgroundThe rapidly growing older population in Vietnam poses an increasing need for care among the older persons, who have mainly relied on informal care at homes and communities. This study examined the Vietnamese older persons' individual and household factors determining their receipt of informal care.MethodsThis study provided cross-tabulations and multivariable regression analyses to identify who provided assistance to the Vietnamese older people along with their individual and household characteristics.DataThe nationally representative survey on older persons, namely Vietnam Aging Survey (VNAS) in 2011 was used in this study.ResultsWe found that proportions of older persons having difficulty in activities of daily living (ADLs) were different in regard to their age, sex, marital status, health status, working status, and living arrangements. In care provision, gender differences were clear, in which females generally had significantly higher rates of providing care to older persons than their male counterparts.ConclusionCare for older persons in Vietnam has been mainly provided by their families, and thus changes in socio-economic, demographic factors along with differences among generations in family values will be a key challenge to maintain such care arrangements.
Background: This research examined differences in the utilisation of healthcare services and financial burden between and within insured and uninsured older persons and their households under the social health insurance scheme in Vietnam. Methods: We used nationally representative data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) conducted in 2014. We applied the World Health Organization (WHO)’s financial indicators in healthcare to provide cross-tabulations and comparisons for insured and uninsured older persons along with their individual and household characteristics (such as age groups, gender, ethnicity, per-capita household expenditure quintiles, and place of residence). Results: We found that social health insurance was beneficial to the insured in comparison with the uninsured in terms of utilization of healthcare services and financial burden. However, between and within these two groups, more vulnerable groups (i.e., ethnic minorities and rural persons) had lower utilization rates and higher rates of catastrophic spending than the better groups (i.e., Kinh and urban persons). Conclusion: Given the rapidly ageing population under low middle-income status and the “double burden of diseases”, this paper suggested that Vietnam reform the healthcare system and social health insurance so as to provide more equitable utilisation and financial protection to all older persons, including improving the quality of healthcare at the grassroots level and reducing the burden on the provincial/central health level; improving human resources for the grassroots healthcare facilities; encroaching public–private partnerships (PPPs) in the healthcare service provision; and developing a nationwide family doctor network.
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