Community-embedded eldercare services and wellbeing of urban older adults aged 60 to 69 in Shanghai

Community-embedded eldercare is a new approach to eldercare that allows older adults to remain embedded in their communities while giving them access to professional care, thus seemingly combining the best of home care and institutional care. The article reports and analyzes the findings from an interview- and questionnaire-based study of urban older adults aged 60 to 69 receiving community-embedded eldercare in Shanghai, focusing on its impact on their wellbeing and potentially mediating factors. The findings are analyzed by means of cognitive appraisal theory and structural equation models. They confirm that both community-embedded eldercare as such and perceptions of it influence older adults' wellbeing positively, highlighting the role of intergenerational support, community support, community interaction, and economic support, thus also corroborating theoretical assumptions that older adults tend to give more importance to intrinsic rather than instrumental values and that they come to focus more strongly on the emotional aspects of their life.