Sustainability in Aging and Depopulation Societies

With the recent changes in population structure and continuous urbanization, the degree of population shrinkage in mountain cities has increased, especially under the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the economic development of such mountain cities has become a prominent issue. The epidemic has not only exposed the vulnerability of these cities to economic development but also aggravated the negative impact of population contraction, bringing about new challenges and pressures related to regional population development and economic resilience. This change has become an important topic in the study of mountain cities. Therefore, taking Guizhou Province as a case study, this work applies the population change rate, the entropy method, and a mediation effect model to study the spatiotemporal evolution of population shrinkage and economic resilience, and it explores how population shrinkage influences economic resilience. The results reveal the following: (1) Few counties experienced population shrinkage in Guizhou Province from 2013 to 2017, indicating a sporadic distribution pattern, whereas the degree of population shrinkage increased rapidly from 2018 to 2022, revealing an east–west symmetrical distribution pattern, with Guiyang city located on the central axis. (2) There are significant regional differences in the spatial distribution of the level of economic resilience between the two periods. Under the impact of COVID-19, from 2019 to 2022, although the overall level of economic resilience increased, the level of resilience in most counties tended to decrease. (3) Regarding the mediating effect, population shrinkage affected the level of economic resilience through general public budget expenditure, foreign trade investment, new urban employment, and GDP. The abovementioned findings are helpful for providing theoretical support and empirical guidance for the sustainable development of mountain cities in the face of population contraction, economic challenges, and promoting regional coordination. Full article

The aging of the rural population is one of the important social problems facing China and the world. To provide strategic support for coping with the challenges brought by an aging society, this study examined the impact of aging of the rural population on agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) and the mechanism of transmission between them, based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2022. The results showed that, first, the aging of the rural population had a negative inhibitory effect on AGTFP, a conclusion that remained valid after a series of robustness tests. Second, the heterogeneity analysis showed that the aging of the rural population in western China had a significant negative impact on AGTFP, while the effect was less significant in eastern and central regions. The intensity of environmental regulation will increase the negative impact of an aging rural population on AGTFP. Third, the analysis of the mechanism showed that the aging of the rural population had a negative impact on AGTFP by inhibiting labor productivity, scientific research and innovation, and farmland transfer. Full article

Rapid population aging has significantly impacted labor supply and posed substantial challenges for the taxi industry, which have not yet been fully comprehended. Here, for the first time, we employ a large-scale dataset of taxi driver operations from China, establishing a comprehensive indicator system of taxi service performance, encompassing economic, environmental, and safety aspects. Through the application of multivariate regression models and other statistical analysis techniques, we have thoroughly investigated the mechanisms through which aging influences taxi service performance. Our research reveals that older drivers, despite exhibiting higher operational efficiency and greater inclination towards stability, underperform in time efficiency metrics, such as income per hour worked, owing to a more conservative working style. Furthermore, aging manifests negative effects on safety and environmental performance. Adjusting the driving strategies of older taxi drivers, such as regulating daily working hours and refining passenger-searching area preferences, can help mitigate these adverse impacts. Full article

Declining birthrates and aging populations are progressing globally, but this trend is particularly prominent in East Asia. Japan and South Korea face SDG-related problems, such as declining birth rates, aging populations, and depopulation in rural areas due to population concentration in urban areas. In this study, “regional revitalization” was set as a keyword for solving SDG-related issues in Japan and South Korea to conduct a comparative analysis of the relevant trends and characteristics of national policies and educational approaches in Japan and South Korea through a literature review. A comparative analysis of the policies and educational approaches to regional revitalization in Japan and South Korea reveals that policies and education are closely related to regional revitalization. Japan aims to increase the permanent population of young people through creating attractive regions in each region, and South Korea aims to alleviate the labor shortage caused by the declining population with labor immigration and aims for regional revitalization via comprehensive cooperation among its own citizens, immigrants, and people with multiple cultures. Full article

Urban parks, one of the most significant outdoor leisure areas, are particularly important for the physical and mental health of older adults. In order to investigate the benefits and constraints of leisure activities that older adults perceived in urban parks, as well as their negotiation mechanisms, this study was conducted using a qualitative method, interviewing 102 retired older adults aged 55 or older in Guangzhou, China, and using Rost CM 6.0 for word frequency analysis. The study findings indicated that due to the lack of age-friendly public leisure facilities in Guangzhou, Chinese older adults expressed multiple expectations regarding the benefits of urban parks, mainly in terms of physical, psychological, and social interaction, with physical benefits being their primary drivers. Leisure constraints can be intrapersonal, interpersonal, or structural. Older adults who visited parks and those who did not were affected by different levels of limitations, with the oldest people experiencing the most pronounced constraints. Older adults were able to access leisure opportunities through a variety of constraint negotiation strategies, including cognitive adaptability, spatiotemporal adaptation, interpersonal coordination, skill acquisition, and alternative leisure activities. The results of this study might assist related management departments in building more age-friendly parks based on the framework of the benefits and constraints of park recreation for older adults, in terms such as institutional design and planning to enhance the role of urban parks in healthy aging. Full article

From the 2020 academic year, new courses of study were introduced in Japan, and the necessity of SDG education was newly specified in them. Therefore, in this study, Miyagi Prefectural Shiroishi High School was selected as a case study as it is conducting community-based SDG education in the Tohoku region, which has problems with sustainability, and the educational effects and changes in awareness before and after SDG education were examined. The purpose of this study is to analyze examples of SDG education practice at Miyagi Prefectural Shiroishi High School based on a case analysis of educational practices related to SDGs that clarifies what changes have been introduced to teachers and students via SDG education, and we suggest activities that are beneficial to both teachers and students. The survey was conducted in a questionnaire format before and after SDG education, and a five-point scale was used to confirm the significance of the change. As a result of SDG education, students became interested in social issues in collaboration with local governments, companies, and schools, and teachers were able to cover specialized content that was difficult without any stakeholders. Full article

In recent years, urban regeneration strategic plans have been implemented across South Korea to curb the negative impacts of depopulation, physical deterioration and economic decline. By adopting a people-centered regeneration process, context-sensitive plans are formulated by integrating local people’s perceptions and expectations. This paper examines urban regeneration plans implemented in Ami-dong Tombstone Cultural Village, a declining hillside village in Busan, using “people–place–process framework of place attachment” to analyze the process of articulating “sense of place” through community-driven approaches. Based on archival research, site investigations, secondary data and semi-structured interviews, the paper explores the revival of social capital, integration of place-sensitivity and improvement of everyday landscapes through affective, behavioral and cognitive responses of urban professionals and community members involved in the project. Findings of the study show that place attachment, sense of community and community participation in regeneration can help in re-creating meaningful places. Lessons from Ami-dong offer insights on ways to strengthen people–people and people–place relationships through design and planning processes in a declining context with an aging population. Full article

As the aging of China’s population continues to intensify as well as deepen, and fiscal support continues to increase, improving the efficiency of fiscal expenditure on aging undertakings has become the key to actively responding to the national strategy of sustainable population aging. This paper uses a global super-efficiency slacks-based measure model to measure the efficiency of fiscal expenditure on aging undertakings in China from 2011 to 2020. The results show, firstly, that the efficiency values are generally increasing. The eastern region’s fiscal expenditure efficiency has output deficiencies overall; all western, central, except Anhui, and northeast, except Jilin, provinces have input redundancies and output shortages. Secondly, the relatively effective provinces in terms of aging undertakings are mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal region; the number of effective provinces in the northeast is gradually increasing. Thirdly, excluding the eastern region, the efficiency values for all regions show a convergence trend; when controlling for region-specific influencing factors, the efficiency values of each region will converge to their respective steady-state levels. It is concluded that the trend in the fiscal management of aging undertakings in China is positive, and the levels of fiscal management as well as technology are higher in the east, lower in the west, less stable in the central, and more progressive in the northeast. Full article

In response to the increasing aging problem that China is facing, this study aimed to investigate the impact of social health on the mortality risk of the Chinese older adult population. In this paper, we used the data from “The Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey (CLHLS)-Longitudinal Data (2008–2018)” and applied the Cox proportional hazard model to investigate the effects of three dimensions of social health on the risk of death among older adults in China. The study found that: (1) The three dimensions of social health have a positive effect on the mortality risk of older adults. (2) Among those three dimensions, social activities had the most significant effect on older adults. The effect of social support and social network on the mortality risk of older adults are basically similar. Moreover, social activity, social support, and the social network had no significant effect on the young-old’s mortality risk. (3) In order to address the problem of data censoring, the Cox proportional hazard model can be used, whereas demographic characteristics, health status, and health behavior components are selective to society. This study enriches social health research in China and promotes the development of social health research from theory to practice. Moreover, it has obvious advantages in terms of economics and feasibility for achieving mortality risk reduction through improving the social health of older adults and building a healthy aging society. Full article

The declining fertility rate has become an important social problem. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the potential relationship between work–family conflict (WFC), life stress (LS), generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) and three-child fertility intention (FI) in working women of reproductive age. The data comes from the survey of the 2021 China Family Health Index Survey. The Mplus8.3 software was used to analyze the selected cases of 1103 female workers of childbearing age between 19 and 35 years old, and they all answered the relevant questions about the willingness to have three children. The results showed that work–family conflict had a significant negative impact on three-child fertility intention of working women of reproductive age (β = −0.188, p < 0.001), The mediating effect found that anxiety disorder had a significant mediating effect between work–family conflict and three-child fertility intention of working women of childbearing age. In addition, the effect between work–family conflict and the three-child fertility intention of working women of reproductive age can be mediated through the chain-mediated effect of Life stress and anxiety disorders. At the same time, the regulating effect also found that life stress can effectively regulate the effect of work–family conflict on anxiety disorders. Therefore, it is necessary to alleviate the conflict between work and family to a certain extent, including employers giving women more understanding and care and reducing gender discrimination. In addition, relatives should also provide substantial labor support in family life. They can also rely on the community to establish childcare services, improve student night care services, and reduce the time cost of female education. Thereby alleviating the life stress and anxiety of female employees of childbearing age and improving their willingness to bear children. Full article

At present, China has lost its demographic dividend. Meanwhile, in the face of the twin challenges of rising living costs and the uneven distribution of educational resources, the fertility intentions of ordinary people are rapidly declining. In the background, China’s latest birth incentive policy has not had the desired effect. Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, these issues have become more complicated, making it more difficult to achieve policy goals. Analysis of changing characteristics and influencing mechanisms in China’s current stage of population growth is therefore significant. Such analysis can help improve China’s population structure and preserve the advantage of human resource endowment. In this paper, we use data from 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 as made available from the resources of China’s National Bureau of Statistics and National Health Commission. These included annual macro statistics, seventh census data, and COVID-19 pandemic data, allowing us to analyze the influencing mechanism of China’s population growth by using the Geographic Detector Model. The research revealed the dependency ratio as the primary factor influencing spatial differentiation of population growth in China, indicating that the dependency burden plays a role in inhibiting population growth. The secondary factor showed different changes in stages. At the same time, any two factors showed more substantial explanatory power after the interaction, meaning the spatial distribution of China’s population growth results from the joint influence of many factors. The strong interaction was mainly concentrated around the dependency ratio and were with women’s political participation and internet coverage. However, under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the explanatory power of traditional factors was diluted, leading to a decline in the strength of interaction. Full article

Under the dual pressure of the large number of patients and the funding of expensive treatments, the established medical model is no longer able to meet the treatment needs of patients with cognitive disorders. Cognitive disorders cannot be cured, and the proposed MCI stage provides a window of opportunity for early intervention of the condition. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a high-risk potential conversion state prior to a diagnosis of cognitive disorder, where the person still has the ability to live but with the presence of cognitive damage. The theory of environment-facilitated rehabilitation has begun to be applied to the study of cognitive disorders prevention, but its effectiveness and the drivers of its pathological characteristics remain unclear. In this paper, we explore spatial design strategies for the rehabilitation of patients with cognitive disorders based on the adaptability of pathological characteristics, and provide new ideas for spatial interventions to prevent the condition. Firstly, this paper constructs the relationship between behavioral characteristics (roaming), pathological characteristics (cognitive impairment), and environmental factors interacting with cognitive disorder patients. Second, the feasibility of spatial design to assist the rehabilitation of the condition was demonstrated by analyzing spatial accessibility, visual visibility, and walking distance using the environmental modification of Yuexiu Elderly Service Center in Guangzhou as an example. The study concludes that environmental influences to improve the quality of rehabilitation and cognitive function are effective, mainly in the improvement of spatial communication depth and care efficiency variables. Full article

With the rapid graying of China’s population, ensuring and improving the quality of life for Chinese elderly people has become an urgent issue. This paper explores the needs of elderly people in China from the perspective of their caregivers by applying machine learning approach upon social media posts related to elderly care and subsequently put forward strategies with respect to data mining findings. We obtain more than thirty thousand texts from the Douban discussion group named “One-Child Parent Retirement Exchange”; Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model is employed to extract topic and words, to analyze and categorize text into relevant elderly care. This study then utilizes SnowNLP module upon previous outcome to appraise the emotional bias of the caregivers. Our finding points out that the essential needs of Chinese elderly people are mental health needs, information needs and intergenerational needs; the emotional bias of children in supporting their parents was generally negative. At the end, our paper subsequently suggests strategies to satisfy the primary elderly caring needs while at the same time alleviating caregivers’ pressure. Full article

In the context of hybrid changes taking place in population and family structures, it is widely perceived that the function of the family as a place where older people retire has weakened. Family support has lost its vitality and has been replaced by public support. However, since the elderly are inseparably connected to their family, it is relevant to rethink and analyze how modern families’ pension functions can be sustainable. Based on structural functionalism and the family modernization theory, we construct an analytical framework to understand how the family ageing function operates separately. Fieldwork was carried out in Nantong, a place where the population has drastically aged. We documented different types of households to explain the changes and differences in modern family ageing. The results show that it is not simply a general weakening, but that a differentiated development pattern has separated the family functions and that there is a functional alternative path to compensate for sustainable development. That is, the economic function is strengthened and compensates for the weakened service function. Based on our research, we argue that families and the government should share the responsibility of meeting the diversified and specialized needs of older people in families where economic functions have strengthened and service functions have weakened. In families where both sets of functions have weakened, the government needs to overtake those functions. Today, family retirement function has been revitalized and redeveloped. Full article