This paper conducts a quantitative analysis of the policy effects of China’s pilot reforms in home- and community-based eldercare services using panel data from the China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey (CLASS) for 2014 and 2020 and a difference-in-differences (DID) model. An “individual-family” dual-effects model is built for this purpose. The aforementioned analysis reveals the following four results. First, the “mental health effects” of the pilot reforms were validated by the data from the pilot policies, yet primarily evident in female older people and urban elderly. Second, the pilot reforms showed quite high family spillover effects and notably inspired filial piety and relevant behaviors among children towards their older parents, which played an important role in promoting family development and the reconstruction of filial norms in the new era. Third, the pilot reforms expanded the social networks of older people, thus improving their mental health. Finally, although the core achievement of the pilot reforms lay in daily care services, they provided a path for the integrated development of medical care and health care with their extensive health assessments. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights for advancing the high-quality development of China’s home- and community-based service systems.

As a life event, fertility behavior has accumulative impacts on individuals' later-life health. This paper examines the effect of the number of births on Chinese older adults' depression by applying OLS and Probit models on data from the 2013 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Older adults with more children have more depressive symptoms. This negative association is more pronounced among those having three or more children. The mediation analysis suggests that the number of children affects the mental health of the older adults because it influences individuals' physical health and support from children. Analyses on the subgroups suggest that the influence of fertility on depressive symptoms is significant among rural older adults, adults aged 60-70 and older women. Other reproductive behaviors such as an older age at first birth and a longer reproductive period also adversely affect the mental health of older adults.