Volume 8,Issue 9
Bridging the Demand–Supply Gap in Health Services for Retired University Faculty in China: A Precision-Stratified, Closed-Loop Framework
As China’s population ages, retired university faculty have become a large but under-studied subgroup of older adults. Their health needs are poorly matched by supply arrangements whose staffing, budgeting, and service portfolios remain calibrated to an active workforce and a student population. This paper characterizes the demand for and supply of health services for this population and proposes an integrated framework for improving delivery. The demand side is analyzed through Andersen’s behavioral model across its predisposing, enabling, and need factors, revealing high health literacy, elevated multimorbidity, and unmet needs in chronic disease management, mental health, rehabilitation, and home-based care. The supply side is examined across three tiers—university-affiliated hospitals, campus health institutions, and community-based primary care—whose limited geriatric capacity, fragmented continuity, and underdeveloped precision capabilities produce a persistent mismatch. To close this gap, the paper advances five interlocking components: precision needs assessment; stratified management; a closed-loop pathway of screening, assessment, intervention, and follow-up; supply restructuring across hospital, campus, and community tiers; and digital empowerment that safeguards the digitally excluded. The framework offers university administrators and health policymakers a theory-grounded roadmap for this and other aging professional cohorts.
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