Pathways to Sustainable Development of Mutual Support Elderly Care (MSEC) in Rural China

This study, via a comparative qualitative analysis of five typical Chinese villages, explores sustainable pathways for rural mutual support elderly care. It identifies addressing integrated "healthcare and elderly care" as crucial. Achieving sustainability requires strengthening village collective economic organizations' core role, building a multi-stakeholder governance model integrating government, society, collective, and family, and designing hybrid mechanisms blending local trust with modern incentives. Policies should empower village collectives, and practice should prioritize establishing village-level health and elderly care service stations to systematically transition rural elderly care from traditional mutual aid to institutionally supported models.