A Treasure at Home: Free Health Check-up Policies, Elderly Health, and Resilience in Family Development

A Treasure at Home: Free Health Check-up Policies, Elderly Health, and Resilience in Family Development | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A Treasure at Home: Free Health Check-up Policies, Elderly Health, and Resilience in Family Development xu qiaoling This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8495730/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study examines the impact of free health check-up policies targeting the elderly on household development resilience and its underlying mechanisms based on CHARLS2013-2020. Key findings are as follows: First, the free physical examination policy significantly enhances household development resilience, a conclusion that remains robust across a series of rigorous tests. Second, the policy’s effects on household resilience vary by education level and income, with greater impacts observed for highly educated households, low-income households, and rural households. Third, the policy improves elderly health literacy, promotes healthy behaviors, elevates subjective and objective health outcomes, reduces health anxiety, lowers household medical burdens, increases labor participation, and ultimately strengthens household resilience. Free health check-up family resilience health behavior subjective health objective health health anxiety Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 19 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 12 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 07 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Feb, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 05 Feb, 2026 Editor invited by journal 08 Jan, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 07 Jan, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 07 Jan, 2026 First submitted to journal 01 Jan, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8495730","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":587698570,"identity":"20781e99-81c7-4eb5-a1be-e6c045eff890","order_by":0,"name":"xu qiaoling","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAq0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACxgMfGCRADAPi9RyckSAhQZqWwzwJDCRoMbiRvOGw7Q+LOgb25m0SDDV3CGuRnJFWcDgH5DCeY2USDMeeEdbCL5FjANEikWMmwdhwmLAWNpAWC5AW+TdEagHbwgC2hYdILZI9zwoO9qRJSLbxpBVbJBwjQovB8eSND37Y1PHzsx/eeONDDRFaGGDRwQYiEojSQFKkj4JRMApGwcgEAMJGMgmjNUxqAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Taiyuan Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"xu","middleName":"","lastName":"qiaoling","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-01 14:38:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8495730/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8495730/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":102398560,"identity":"8db9eb6e-95ff-4252-a646-2db8e318a9f4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-11 10:23:33","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":742366,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"FreeHealthCheckupElderlyHealthandFamilyResilience.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8495730/v1_covered_92079149-0bca-4f5b-a27d-4978c5fffe90.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"A Treasure at Home: Free Health Check-up Policies, Elderly Health, and Resilience in Family Development","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-health-services-research","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"bhsr","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Health Services Research](http://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/BHSR/default.aspx","title":"BMC Health Services Research","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Free health check-up, family resilience, health behavior, subjective health, objective health, health anxiety","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8495730/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8495730/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis study examines the impact of free health check-up policies targeting the elderly on household development resilience and its underlying mechanisms based on CHARLS2013-2020. 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