Long-Term Care in China and Worldwide (2024-2025)
This team examined the future of long-term care in China amid rapid population aging and rising demands on care systems. The interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students from Duke and Duke Kushan University investigated how care for older adults is structured, delivered and experienced across regions. Their work focused on urgent priorities for aging societies, including the role of artificial intelligence in dementia care, the adequacy of the long-term care workforce and the clarity of national and provincial policies shaping both institutional and informal care.
The team’s systematic reviews revealed both promising innovations and persistent gaps. One study found that AI technologies, from smart sensors to predictive algorithms, can support mobility, cognition, social engagement and caregiver assistance for older adults with dementia, but barriers such as privacy risks, bias, cost and limited trust remain. Another review showed widespread understaffing and limited training across Chinese long-term care facilities, with better outcomes consistently linked to higher staffing levels and education. Policy analyses further highlighted the need for clearer, more enforceable standards in institutional elder care and greater national coordination to support the growing “Hu Gong” informal caregiving workforce, which remains unevenly regulated across provinces.
They presented their findings at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health 2025 conference and the Duke Bass Connections showcase. Building on this momentum, the team plans to expand its research through comparative fieldwork across Chinese provinces and other low- and middle-income countries, including Nepal. These next steps aim to generate peer-reviewed publications and develop an interactive resource website to inform future research, guide policymaking and educate the broader public about aging and care system innovations.
Timing
Summer 2024 – Summer 2025
Team Outputs
Effects and Concerns of AI Applications Among Home-dwelling Older Population with Dementia: A Systematic Review (Poster presentation at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) 2025 Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, February 2025)
Multisectoral Collaboration in Informal Paid Long-term Care Workforce Development in China: A Policy Review (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 16, 2025)
This Team in the News
Assistant Professor Awarded two Bass Connections Projects
Image: The entrance, by Susan Jane Golding, licensed under CC BY 2.0