Long-term care

Ageing and Chronic Care

Definition. Long-term care is a range of health and social services that support people who need help with daily activities over an extended period because of age, illness or disability.

Explanation

Financing is a central policy issue; China’s long-term care insurance has been evaluated for its effects on health inequality (Ke & Sun, 2025). Care work in these settings carries emotional and spatial pressures, as studies of the emotional geographies of care show (Giesbrecht et al., 2021).

Related concepts

Informal care Frailty Ageism Health financing

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References

Giesbrecht, M., Stajduhar, K. I., Cloutier, D., & Dujela, C. (2021). “We are to be like machines … fill the bed before it gets cold”: Exploring the emotional geographies of healthcare providers caring for dying residents in long-term care facilities. Social Science & Medicine, 272, Article 113749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113749

Ke, J., & Sun, F. (2025). Long‐term care insurance and health inequality: Evidence from China. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hpm.3905

Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Long-term care. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/long-term-care/

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