Exploration of supply–demand gaps of urban community-based elderly care facilities in Shanghai

Community-based elderly care is a method of providing care to the elderly that has developed globally. The supply of community-based facilities and services is essential for implementing social elderly care, ensuring that older individuals receive the necessary support within their communities. The gaps between the supply and demand of community-based elderly care facilities and services seriously affect the elderly's quality of life further impacting social and economic development. Current research on China lacks comprehensive information regarding the requirements of older adults,, particularly in terms of official reports and analyses evaluating the availability of community-based care facilities for the elderly. The study explores the reason for the imbalanced supply and demand between community-based elderly care facilities and services in two cases in Shanghai urban central areas, aiming to develop effective research methods on the needs of the elderly and provide support for planning strategies and policy development. This study employed a pilot investigation to support methodology development. The data collection techniques and interview questions were refined based on the actual data collection circumstances and analysis of the pilot study. Subsequently, the needs of the elderly and the provision of facilities and services were identified through semi-structured interviews with 40 elderly individuals and two managers, and 400 h of observations, whilst Shanghai’s existing policy gaps were ascertained through relevant documentary reviews. Through investigation, significant undersupply and oversupply between community-based elderly care facilities and the elderly’s expectations were discovered and illustrated. Supply–demand disparities in community-based elderly care facilities manifest in both undersupply and oversupply. While insufficient supply constrains service quality, resource wastage due to oversupply exacerbates inefficiency. Shanghai’s future policy and planning guidance formulation for community-based elderly care facilities should be based on clarifying the needs of the elderly, marketing the promotion of elderly care services in communities and developing skilled and ethical professional elderly care teams. The elderly, the government, and social economy development can benefit from the improvement of policy and planning guidance on elderly care.