The Relationship Between Health Changes and Community Health Screening Participation Among Older People

The utilization of health screening and other community health services has been a hot topic in China. Thus, this study examined the effect of health changes (self-rated health, physical health, and mental health) on older people's community health screening participation in China. We derived the data from the 2016 and 2018 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS). This paper included 10,992 observations in two waves. We tested the causal relationship using the fixed effects model. Approximately 29.56% of the respondents participated in a health screening. Notably, after controlling for covariates, changes in mental and physical health both significantly influenced seniors' participation in health screenings (self-rated health: β = 0.188, 95% CI [-0.037, -0.413]; physical health: β = 0.078, 95% CI [0.032, -0.124]; mental health: β = 0.034, 95% CI [-0.057, -0.002]). The findings showed age, educational level, income level, and family support to be significant factors associated with community health screening participation. Additionally, we identified a partial mediating effect of mental health between self-rated health and health screening participation and a partial mediating effect of depression between physical health and health screening participation. The results highlight the important role of health changes in influencing participation and promoting health screening in China. On this basis, healthcare providers in the community may consider health changes as a screening criterion to promote health screening, guiding other health promotion and prevention programs while promoting healthy aging.