Research on the Structural Characteristics and Optimization Paths of Residents’ Elderly Care Consumption Behavior Under the Background of Population Aging

The “national strategy for actively responding to population aging” has been elevated to a new height. Against this background, an in-depth exploration of residents’ elderly care consumption behavior is crucial for improving the elderly care security system. Based on a questionnaire survey of 727 residents and using cross-analysis methods, this study systematically examines the structural characteristics and influencing factors of residents’ elderly care consumption. The research finds that residents’ cognition of elderly care consumption presents a “reality-expectation” dual structure: current consumption is dominated by “subsistence-oriented” expenditures such as medical care and daily living, while future expectations are significantly inclined to “development-oriented” consumption such as culture and entertainment. The quality of elderly care services is a core pain point, and residents have a strong willingness to improve, which is also significantly related to their living status. There is a strong correlation between policy awareness and payment willingness—groups with high awareness have a high willingness to pay, a phenomenon that reveals the market activation effect of policy communication. At the same time, residents’ access to elderly care-related information is highly dependent on informal networks, with a high proportion of recommendations from acquaintances, reflecting the lack of professional information niches. Accordingly, this paper proposes that efforts should be made synergistically from four aspects: supply-side reform, precise policy communication, full-cycle elderly care planning education, and information platform construction, to promote the high-quality development of the elderly care consumption market through systematic paths.