Research on the Causes of Gray Divide Generated in Smart Elderly
Care in Liangshan Prefecture:
Based on AHP-FCE Operational Model
Songyan Han
a
Institute of Public Administration, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Keywords: Smart Elderly Care, Gray Divide, Digital Governance, AHP-FCE Operational Model.
Abstract: This research takes Liangshan Prefecture as an example, the purpose is to explore the causes of the gray divide
generated in the smart elderly care service in Liangshan Prefecture. To accomplish this, this study combines
the depth-interview and grounded theory as research method in order to collect data, then put them to the
AHP-FCE operational model, run the model getting the main causes jointly lead to the generation of gray
divide are as follows: (1) limitation of conventional thought; (2) digital infrastructure is incomplete; (3) lack
of digital capability improvement system; (4) the using effect is unsatisfactory. Based on these, the paper puts
forward some specific suggestions to construct the governance framework of multiple cooperation in order to
narrow the gray divide as well as promote the construction of Chinese smart elderly care research a new height.
1 INTRODUCTION
Increasing the quantity and quality of the supply of
elderly care services for the quality improvement of
life of the aging population takes on a critical
significance to improving people's lives and works in
the ethnic areas in western China after poverty
alleviation. Moreover, it is critical to consolidating
the achievements of poverty alleviation and
effectively connecting the rural revitalization
strategy. On the one hand, digital information
technology has essentially changed people's living
habits and conceptions of thinking in a wide variety
of fields while reshaping the local government's
public service supply system.
In the context of building digital China, the
Chinese government at all levels is actively exploring
the novel supply pattern combining information
technology and elderly services. As a result, smart
old-age service has been boosted with the proper time
and conditions, which shows an irresistible
development situation. On the other hand, the
population aging in Chinese western ethnic minority
areas, such as Liangshan Prefecture tends to increase
and deepen, and other reality factors (e.g., the gradual
weakening of the function of the conventional elderly
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8373-6368
services mode) are becoming progressively
prominent (Li and Zhang, 2021). Accordingly, an
effective mode is in urgent needed to improve the
supply quality of elderly services. In brief, smart
elderly care tends to be a fundamental solution to
solve the problems of lagging supply and low quality
of elderly care services in Liangshan Prefecture.
However, the adaptive construction level of the smart
elderly care in there should be further improved under
numerous factors. Compared the aged population in
other areas, there is a significant gap in the
acceptance willingness and awareness of this novelty
pension model, such that this group cannot equally
benefit from the development of Chinese smart
pension services. The gray divide in it is generate and
tends to expand.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The external policy environment has been continually
optimized, and the smart elderly care services
industry has been developing worldwide. Under the
above context, relevant research results on this issue
has progressively enriched. Furthermore, the
diversity of research topics is a major step forward,
256
Han, S.
Research on the Causes of Gray Divide Generated in Smart Elderly Care in Liangshan Prefecture: Based on AHP-FCE Operational Model.
DOI: 10.5220/0012073000003624
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis (PMBDA 2022), pages 256-266
ISBN: 978-989-758-658-3
Copyright
c
2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
with a major focus on the acceptance willingness and
the relevant factors. The novelty supply mode of
smart elderly care, the dilemma, and risk in its
development process are explored.
The acceptability and willingness of the aging
population, the main body of the smart elderly care
service, will significantly affect the development of
the smart elderly care service. The low acceptability
and willingness of the users is also one of the leading
causes of the generation of gray divide. Existing
research in this field also reveals a distinct ideology
of contingency, thus indicating that various elderly
people have different factors for their demand for
smart elderly care services and their willingness to
use these services (Zhang, Li and Wu, 2020). To be
specific, age, places to live, ability to accept novel
things, average ratio of monthly income to
expenditure and the support from families, as well as
NGOs (Zhuo et al., 2020), subjective norms,
perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use
(Yang at al., 2020) will affect the aging population's
willingness to use smart elderly care services from
the perspective of users' subjective and objective
conditions. Moreover, the research results about the
factors for the willingness though the model
construction have been relatively rich. To be specific,
the quality of material and interaction environment,
elderly care information, platform system and service,
as well as the service satisfaction will significantly
affect users' willingness to adopt smart elderly care
services (Zhu et al., 2021).
Along with the supply system of Chinese smart
elderly service has been gradually formed and
improved, the new supply modes of smart elderly
care service is being explored both in daily practice
and in theory research, mainly includes the intelligent
community caring services, intelligent home-based
caring and virtual pension service.
First, compared with three conventional supply
modes of elderly care services, namely "government-
led public model", "market-led private model" and
"socially-led mutual assistance model", intelligent
community caring services have the different
characteristics of components, merit and demerit, and
adaptive dimensions (Liu et al., 2022), which has
significant superiority of reducing pension burdens of
social and family and lifting the efficiency of the
pension industry chain.
Second, intelligent home-based elderly caring is a
novel model to effectively solve the problem of
Chinese elderly care built with the core idea of
"openness, equality, innovation and free" (Xu et al.,
2021). Compared with the conventional home-based
elderly care mode, it shows significant advantages in
such fields as exchange of elderly care information,
expansion of elder care projects, and optimization of
elderly care supply. However, in the process of
development, this mode will be significantly limited
by the fragmented development of nursing, caring,
and medical treatment (Sui et al., 2016). Thus, the
future development trend of this new elderly care
mode should enhance the integrity of all components
in it and build the supply platform and model that
stress the characteristics of being integrated and
refined.
Lastly, virtual pension service relies on the
information platform to integrate pension resources
and realize the integration of modern technology and
conventional pension model, which is not only a new
model to break through the conventional dilemma of
Chinese elderly care services (Du and Sun, 2020), it
also represents the future development direction of
China’s smart elderly care services (Zhu, 2021).
The smart elderly care, newly produced by the
combination of the conventional pension modes and
the background of the information age, has a bright
prospect, whereas twists and turns remain in its
development path. Besides, a variety of difficulties
and risks exposed during its development arouse wide
public and academic attention.
First, from the institutional perspective, the
lagging-behind of the supply-based guidance, the
deep integration of resources, the reform of
institution offering services for the elderly will
significantly limit its development (Du and Zang,
2020). In addition, problems such as the immature
business model, mismatch between supply and
demand (Uddin, Khaksar and Torresen, 2018),
difficulties in information sharing, incomplete
construction of norms and standardization system
(Ghamesi, Rezaee and Rahmani, 2019), and lack of
professional talents are all exposed in the
development process of smart elderly care worldwide
(Wu, 2021).
Second, from the perspective of supply and
demand side, cognitive bias, market, industrial order
and access dilemma (Chen, 2021) are all the the
fetches that need to be broken in the development
process of smart elderly care services.
Lastly, digital technology is a two-edged sword
and it also had the spillover effect, in the development
process of smart elderly care worldwide, it may also
causes such ethical risks as safety uncontrollable
during the human-computer interacting, ambiguity of
responsibility under subject recognition dilemma and
moral abnormality due to the change of family
relationship (Wang, 2021). At the same time, some
social, market and technical risks will be induced by
Research on the Causes of Gray Divide Generated in Smart Elderly Care in Liangshan Prefecture: Based on AHP-FCE Operational Model
257
some causative factors such as the incompatibility
between the conventional legal system and the new
pension service model as well as the imperfect
regulatory system. (Zhu, 2020).
3 RESEARCH DESIGN
In this study, 20 communities or towns in 5 counties
of Liangshan Prefecture is taken as a research case.
The data are obtained using the research method
combining questionnaire survey and in-depth
interview. Subsequently, the obtained data are
analyzed in accordance with grounded theory in order
to obtain the indicators as well as construct the
indicator system of AHP-FCE model, after assessing
it, this research found the main causes of the
generation of gray divide in smart elderly services in
Liangshan Prefecture. And some policy suggestions
are proposed to further narrow it (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Research Framework
3.1 Data Selection
In this study, questionnaire survey, in-depth
interview, and grounded theory are adopted to
investigate 20 communities or towns in 5 counties of
Liangshan Prefecture (Table 1). First, a semi-
structured in-depth interview has been conducted
with 61 aging population over 60 years old following
the theme of "The views of smart elderly care
services". Table 2 lists the basic information of the
interviewees. In this study, the interview content is
converted into text and numbered. Subsequently, the
grounded theory is applied to code the text data word
by word. Next, 250 questionnaires have been
distributed in the research areas, and 206 valid
questionnaires have been collected to theoretically
support the follow-up research of this study. The
reliability and validity of samples are tested using
SPSS 26.0, and the Cronbachs α coefficient value
reaches 0.72, thus indicating that the reliability of the
questionnaire is acceptable, and the KMO value of
the model index reaches 0.791, greater than 0.7. On
that basis, the above result confirms that the validity
conforms to the requirements.
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Table 1: Selection of Investigation Areas.
Cities (Countries) Communities (Villages, Towns)
The Copies of Valid
Questionnaires
Collection
Number of
Interviewees
Xichang City
Zhangmuqing Village, Minsheng Village,
Xianghe Community,Jianxin Community,
Yin
g
bin Communit
y
61 17
Xide Country
Heboluo Village, Mianshan Town, Shangyejie
Communit
y
24 13
Puge Country
Bazhe Town, Huashan Community, Chengnan
Communit
y
33 14
Yanyuan Country
Luguhu Town, Tengqiao Town, Jinhe Town,
Weicheng Community, Yanrui Communit
y
40 7
Butuo Country
Baoguping Town, Telimu Town. Dongcheng
Community, Yisa Communit
y
48 5
3.2 Research Model Selection
AHP-FCE Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process is a
combination of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation
method FCE and AHP. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy
Process) was first proposed by American operations
research scientist T.L. Saaty in 1975 (Hamido, 2012).
Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) is a kind of
comprehensive evaluation method based on
mathematical model. It uses fuzzy mathematics to
deal with the indicators which are affected by
qualitative factors. Ahp-FCE Fuzzy Analytic
Hierarchy Process (AHP) is the integration of
advantages and complementary disadvantages of the
two. The questionnaire was designed based on Likert
scale, and the evaluation set V={V1, V2, V3, V4, V5}
was set, where V1: very low (satisfactory/Accord
with); V2: relatively low (satisfactory/Accord with);
V3: general (satisfactory/Accord with); V4:
Relatively high (satisfactory/Accord with); V5: Very
high (satisfactory/Accord with) (He, 2020). The
principle of weighted average is adopted to treat each
rank as a relative position and make it continuous. In
order to display the evaluation results more
intuitively, the percentage system was used to obtain
the membership function image by referring to
relevant literature, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: The Corresponding Estimation Scale of
Quantitative Data.
fi was set as the number of people evaluated by
the questionnaire for each index, Wi was the index
weight, gij was the matrix data corresponding to the
index evaluation, Vt was the corresponding score of
each level, T was the total score of the actual
evaluation, t was the theoretical score, and Tt was the
scoring rate. Then:
irequestionna Totalfffff
54321
iiiii
=++++
(1)
）（
543215~15~1
iiiiiiji
ffffffg ++++=
(2)
15141312111
jijijijijit
g*95g*85g*75g*65g*55v ++++=
·
·
·
n5n4n3n2n1n
jijijijijit
g*95g*85g*75g*65g*55v ++++=
(3)
1454321
tttttt
v...vvvvv +++++=T
(4)
100*w...100*w100*wt
1421
iii
+++=
(5)
T
V
T
nn )14~1(
14)~1n(n
t
t
=
=
=
(6)
The construction of pair comparison matrix is the
mathematical basis of fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy
Process (AHP-FCE). Aiming at specific problems,
professionals who have the right to speak in a specific
field will give the index comparison results as the
basis of index weighting. The research sets i and j as
the comparison factors respectively, then aij
represents the comparison results of item i and item j,
and the evaluation factors are shown in Table 1.
Research on the Causes of Gray Divide Generated in Smart Elderly Care in Liangshan Prefecture: Based on AHP-FCE Operational Model
259
Table 2: The Matrix of Pairwise Comparison by Experts.
Scoring
Connotation (Two factors in
comparison)
1 Equally importan
t
3
The former is slightly more
important than the latte
r
5
The former is more important than
the latte
r
7
The former is much more important
than the latte
r
9
The former is absolutely important
than the latte
r
2/4/6/8
The median value of the adjacent
comparison judgment above
Diagonal
description
𝑎
ji
*a
ij
=1
Pairwise
comparison the
characteristics of
matrix
𝑎
ij
>0
，
𝑎
ji
>0
，
𝑎
ij
=
1
𝑎
ji
Set Wi as the final weight corresponding to the i-
th index (i=1-14), Xi (i=1-14) as the average result of
expert comparison and proof by line, and Yij (i=1-15,
j=1-15) as the standardized result by column, then:
𝑦
ij
(1~n)
=𝑎
ij
(1~n)
（
𝑎
ij
⁄
+𝑎
ij
+𝑎
ij
+𝑎
ij
...
+𝑎
ij
）
(7)
𝑥
(1~)
=1
（
𝑦
+𝑦
+𝑦
+𝑦
...
+𝑦
）
(8)
𝑤
=1∗𝑥
irst Grade Index
*x
econd rade Index
(9)
𝑤
+𝑤
+. . . +𝑤
14
=1 (10)
3.3 Construction of Index System
Based on the grounded theory analysis of the
interviewees' interview data, this paper finally
condensed 17 indicators leading to the generation of
gray divide in the smart elderly care service in
Liangshan Prefecture, and further summarized them
into the access divide, power divide, psychology
divide and effect divide. The above indicators are
form an evaluation model index system for the causes
of the generation of gray divide in smart elderly care
services in Liangshan Prefecture, as shown in Table 3.
Table 3: The Evaluation Model Index System of the Generation of Gray Divide in Smart Elderly Care Services in Liangshan
Prefecture.
Target Hierarch
y
Inherent Hierarchy Performances Hierarchy
The Evaluation
Model of the
Gray Divide
Generated in
Smart Elderly
Care Services in
LiangShan
Prefecture
A
Access The Intelligent
Devices of Smart Elderly
Care
(Access Divide)
B1
The device operation
C1
The network stabilization
C2
The convenience degree of operate the devices
C3
Income level
C4
Basic Digital Ability and
Literacy
(Power Divide)
B2
Personal cognitive and physical function
C5
The willingness of participate in digital ability training
C6
The self-efficacy of improving digital capacity
C7
The condition of digital ability training in family
C8
Education Level
C9
The Psychology of Obtaining
the Smart Elderly Care
Services
(Psychology Divide)
B3
The willingness to accept smart elderly care services
C10
The demand for children to care them on-hand
C11
The Recognition condition of smart pension mode
C12
The concerns about network security problems
C13
The Effects of Using Smart
Elderly Care Services
(Effect Divide)
B4
The fit-aging level of smart elderly care services
C14
The price of accessing smart elderly care services
C15
The construction level of industry regulatory mechanisms
C16
The construction level of quality assessment mechanism
C17
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4 MODEL EVALUATION
According to the standards of the same level and the
same type, the index system was divided into four
comparison intervals: [B1, B2, B3, B4], [C1, C2, C3,
C4], [C5, C6, C7, C8, C9], [C10, C11, C12, C13] and
[C14, C15, C16, C17]. Then, through the
questionnaire design, the importance of the relevant
evaluation indicators were analyzed by experts, and 5
interval index systems were constructed by
combining the expert opinions and the final scoring
results to provide evidence for comparison and
judgment, and then the consistency test was carried
out. The following is an example of the index interval
[C5, C6, C7, C8, C9] for calculation. First, construct
[C5, C6, C7, C8, C9] expert pairs comparison matrix
and assign weight:
[C5, C6, C7, C8, C9] Contrast Proof by Experts=
13569
1/31258
1/51/2147
1/61/51/413
1/91/81/71/31
Then, consistency in the matrix, calculates the
maximum characteristic radix
λ
is 5.285, the
eigenvector corresponding to is (0.160, 0.332, 0.828,
1.221, 2.458). C
I
is set as a consistency index, and we
can get C
I
=(
λ
-n)/(n-1)=0.071. R
I
was set as a
random consistency index, C
R
=C
I
/R
I
=0.071/1.120. In
the matrix test, the smaller the C
R
value, the better the
consistency of the judgment matrix. When C
R
value
is less than 0.1, the consistency test of the judgment
matrix passes. If the value of C
R
is greater than 0.1, it
indicates that there is no consistency. Based on the
fifth-order judgment matrix, the value of C
I
is 0.071,
as shown in Table 4, and the value of R
I
is 1.120, as
shown in Table 5. Therefore, the value of C
R
is
0.064<0.1, indicating that the judgment matrix meets
the consistency test standard and the weight obtained
is consistent.
Table 4: The AHP Analysis Result of [C5, C6, C7, C8, C9].
Item Eigenvector
Weighted
Valu e
Eigenvalue of
Maximum
The
Valu e
of CI
C5 0.160 3.208%
5.285 0.071
C6 0.332 6.633%
C7 0.828 16.562%
C8 1.221 24.429%
C9 2.458 49.169%
Table 5: The Comparison Table of Random Consistency Index of RI.
Nth-order 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
RI 0.89 1.12 1.26 1.36 1.41 1.46 1.49 1.52 1.54 1.56 1.58
Nth-order 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
RI 1.6133 1.6207 1.6292 1.6358 1.6403 1.6462 1.6497 1.6556 1.6587 1.6631 1.6670
According to the above process, the remaining
[B1, B2, B3, B4], [C1, C2, C3, C4], [C10, C11, C12,
C13] and [C14, C15, C16, C17] were checked and the
CR values were 0.070, 0.061, 0.063 and 0.069, which
were all less than 0.1. Therefore, the indexes of the
quasi - test layer and the scheme layer meet the
consistency test standard. Then, the above formulas
(7), (8) and (9) are used to calculate the weight of
indicators, and the theoretical scores are calculated
according to the formula (5), and the analogy results
are shown in Table 6. Verify the formula (10),
Wi1+Wi2+Wi3+... + Wi17 = 0.0075 + 0.0033 +
0.0163 + 0.038 +... +0.1217+0.1796+0.3615=1, the
test passed.
Research on the Causes of Gray Divide Generated in Smart Elderly Care in Liangshan Prefecture: Based on AHP-FCE Operational Model
261
Table 6: The Index Weight and Theoretical Score of the Model.
Target
Hierarchy
Inherent
Hierarchy
Weights
Performances
Hierarchy
Weights
Combination
Weight Wi
Theoretical
Score
A
B1 0.0654
C1 0.1154 0.0075 0.75
C2 0.0502 0.0032 0.33
C3 0.2488 0.0163 1.63
C4 0.5856 0.0383 3.83
B2 0.1994
C5 0.2300 0.0321 4.59
C6 0.0408 0.0081 0.81
C7 0.0735 0.0147 1.47
C8 0.5379 0.1073 10.73
C9 0.1178 0.0235 2.35
B3 0.7352
C10 0.0321 0.0236 2.36
C11 0.0663 0.0213 4.87
C12 0.1656 0.1217 12.17
C13 0.2443 0.1796 17.96
B4 0.5623
C14 0.4917 0.3615 36.15
C15 0.2321 0.0121 7.32
C16 0.1782 0.0021 3.98
C17 0.3212 0.0271 9.03
After analogy, the score value and scoring rate in
the evaluation model of the gray gap generated in the
process of obtaining smart elderly care services in
Liangshan Prefecture are as shown in Table 7:
Table 7: The Assessment Result of Evaluation Model of the Gray Divide Generated in Smart Elderly Care Services in
Liangshan Prefecture.
Target
Hierarchy
Performances
Hierarchy
Combination
Weight Wi
Theoretical
Score t
Practical
Score T
Scoring
Average of
Performances
Hierarch
y
Scoring
Average of
Inherent
Hierarch
y
Scoring
Average of
Target
Hierarch
y
A
C1 0.0075 0.75 0.64 85.33%
B1=79.66%
82.24%
C2 0.0032 0.33 0.24 72.73%
C3 0.0163 1.63 1.28 78.53%
C4 0.0383 3.83 3.05 79.63%
C5 0.0459 4.59 3.84 83.66%
B2=75.99%
C6 0.0081 0.81 0.56 69.14%
C7 0.0147 1.47 1.02 69.39%
C8 0.1073 10.73 8.06 75.12%
C9 0.0235 2.35 1.68 71.49%
C10 0.0236 2.36 1.71 72.46%
B3=84.17%
C11 0.0487 4.87 3.65 74.95%
C12 0.1217 12.17 9.39 77.16%
C13 0.1796 17.96 14.55 81.01%
C14 0.3615 36.15 32.57 90.10%
B4=85.79%
C15 0.0121 7.32 6.01 82.10%
C16 0.0021 3.98 3.53 88.69%
C17 0.0271 9.03 7.86 87.04%
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5 CONCLUSIONS
5.1 Limitation of Conventional
Thought: Difficult to Cross
Psychology Divide
The psychological divide of gray divide in smart
elderly care services refers to the gap in demand,
willingness and attitude of different aging groups
when facing the emerging technologies, modes and
products regarding smart pension services. There are
two main reasons why the aging population in the
Liangshan Prefecture is difficult to close the
psychological divide.
First, the conventional concept and cognitive bias
of elderly care limit their acceptance of the smart
elderly care service mode. Taking Liangshan
Prefecture as an example, out of the special emotion
for parents and ancestors, the Yi community in
Liangshan Prefecture has formed a unique idea and
consumption concept of elderly care, and the concept
of "great burial and poor care" is deeply rooted in
their mind. On that basis, a grand funeral after parents
died is the critical form of filial piety, whereas the
daily elderly care improving the quality of life of an
aging population has been neglected. As indicated by
the results of the questionnaire and interview, 85.3%
of the respondents said, "they are willing to spend a
high amount of money for their parents' funerals,
whereas they are not willing to spend more money on
daily elderly care services". The above result reveals
that the conservative pension and consumption
concept in LiangShan.
Prefecture will not only form the unhealthy
practice of extravagance and waste, but also reduce
the quality of life in the elderly.
At the same time, the cognitive bias of the aging
population and their children against the smart
pension service is also widespread. As mentioned
above, the pension model in the above areas is
relatively simple, conventional home-based pension
model accounts for a large proportion, and the
proportion of some emerging modes (e.g.,
community pension and institutional pension)
approaches zero. In Liangshan Prefecture, for
example, 99.31% of the aging population said "they
would not accept the institutional pension" and 99.72%
of respondents said "it is unfilial to send parents to a
nursing home or other institution". As indicated by
the above results, the cognitive bias against emerging
pension modes (e.g., institutional pension and
community pension) will further hinder their
psychological acceptance of smart elderly care
services.
Second, the pessimistic fear of technology will
further drop the willingness of the elderly people to
accept smart elderly care service. With the rapid
advance of information technology in China, the
ethical and legal risks (e.g., network fraud and
personal information leakage) have emerged in
endlessly. The probability of aging population in
there become "victims" of network risks increases
remarkably due to the generally poorly educated and
very limited digital literacy and ability of them.
According to The Survey Report on Internet Access
and Risks of the Chinese Elderly released in 2018.
Over half of Chinese elderly Internet users have been
exposed to online pyramid schemes, financial fraud,
and online shopping fraud. The aging population is
difficult to distinguish and process the exponential
growth of network information due to their low
education level, limited digital literacy and related
abilities, which significantly reduces their trust of
Internet and information technology, resulting in the
emergence of "technophobia", it makes them
extremely resistant to the intelligent pension mode
built based on Internet and information device. In the
survey, 30.4% of respondents said, "the reason they
are reluctant to access the smart pension mode is that
they are afraid of suffering Internet fraud."
In brief, the conventional conception of elderly
care and consumption in Liangshan Prefecture, the
cognitive bias against the emerging smart elderly care
and the pessimistic fear of technology together lead
to the difficulty of the aging population to cross the
psychological divide.
5.2 Digital Infrastructure Is
Incomplete: Difficult to Cross
Access Divide
The access divide of silver divide in smart elderly
care services refers to the gap generated in the process
of enjoying the development achievement of smart
elderly care services between those who have access
to Internet as well as intelligent devices and those
who do not, which is the material basis of the gray
divide. The reasons why it is difficult for the aging
population to bridge the access divide are mainly as
follows.
First, after poverty alleviation, although the
construction of digital infrastructure in Liangshan
Prefecture has made remarkable progress, it is still in
a relatively weak position compared with other areas
in China. Taking Liangshan Prefecture as an example,
it is clearly pointed out in the 14th Five-Year Plan of
Digital Economy Development issued by the
Economic and Information Bureau of Liangshan Yi
Research on the Causes of Gray Divide Generated in Smart Elderly Care in Liangshan Prefecture: Based on AHP-FCE Operational Model
263
Autonomous Prefecture that "the informatization
level of the prefecture is at a relatively low level in
the province, the supporting capacity of
communication network infrastructure is insufficient,
and the intensive construction of information
infrastructure need to be further improved".
Second, as the main body of the production and
supply of smart elderly care services, the
development quality and level of related industries
are of great importance for the integral development
of smart elderly care service. In general, the
development foundation of the intelligent elderly care
industry in China’s western ethnic areas is relatively
weak, still exists some practical problems, such as
lack of driving force for industrial agglomerative
development and leading enterprises, the weak
support ability of technological innovation for
industrial development.
Third, the landform and topography of ethnic
areas in western China are mainly mountainous. The
above natural conditions also determine that the
construction cost of digital infrastructure in there is
relatively high. The special topography and poor
transportation conditions together result in bad access
conditions of smart elderly care services in China’s
western ethnic areas such as Liangshan Prefecture. In
the process of the survey, 36.41% of respondents said
that "the instability of the network and mobile phone
signal is one of the reasons why they are not willing
to access in smart elderly care."
Lastly, on the one hand, the above enterprises
retain their nature of profit-seeking. In the pricing of
related products and services of smart elderly care,
they will pursue the greatest interests as the
fundamental goal. On the other hand, as a part of
public services, the publicness of elderly care
services should also be paid attention to. In the games
between the above two natures, the former tends to
seize the advantage. Thus, the high pricing of the
smart elderly care services and products will hinder
the aging population in ethnic areas in western China
from crossing the access divide significantly, and it is
a common phenomenon of hard to bear the cost of
digital devices (e.g., smart phones and network
telecommunications) in China’s western ethnic areas.
Taking Liangshan Prefecture as an example, the
results of the questionnaire showed that 30.1% and
29.3% of respondents said they "do not have smart
phones" and have “no Internet connection at home”,
respectively.
In brief, factors (e.g., the incomplete digital
infrastructure and the weak development foundation
of smart elderly care industries) have led to the
realistic dilemma that the aging population in ethnic
areas in western China is difficult to bridge the access
divide.
5.3 Lack of Digital Capability
Improvement System: Difficult to
Cross Power Divide
The power divide of gray divide in the smart elderly
care service refers to the gap in the ability and
accomplishment of the aging population when
accessing the smart pension service. For the aging
population in China’s western ethnic areas, even if
they have successfully crossed the psychological and
access divide, they remain in a relatively weak
position in terms of their ability to use the services
due to the lack of the cultivation and improvement
system of the digital capability of smart elderly care
services.
On the one hand, there are still some defects in the
top-level design of the digital ability cultivation and
promotion system in ethnic areas in western China,
which mainly reflected in the lack of clear policy
support at the national level, and the low importance
attached to its role and position in the process of
ensuring the aging population in China’s western
ethnic areas are able to enjoy the equality of the
development achievement of the smart pension
service. Moreover, the premise of establishing a
perfect system to cultivate and enhance the digital
ability of smart pension is to promote the aging group
to form the right comprehension of it. However, the
relevant propagandization activities have been
significantly hindered in ethnic areas in western
China, especially in the grass roots. In addition, the
propaganda strength of smart elderly care is
insufficient, and the forms of propaganda are
relatively simple. With Liangshan Prefecture as an
example, the survey found that 79.23% of the
respondents said "they know nothing about the smart
elderly care services".
On the other hand, the vacancy of the grass-root
governance subjects (e.g., communities and villages)
in digital ability promotion activities in China’s
western ethnic areas will also lead to the further
expansion of the power divide. With Liangshan
Prefecture as an example, 79.23% of respondents said
that "villages or communities have never held any
training activities related to digital ability".
In brief, factors (e.g., defective top-level design,
insufficient publicity, and the absence of governance
subjects) have caused the inability of the aging
population in ethnic areas in western China to bridge
the power divide.
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5.4 The Using Effect Is Unsatisfactory:
Difficult to Cross Effect Divide
The effect divide of gray divide in smart elderly care
services represents the gap in the effect, experience
feeling and benefit of the aging population applying
the smart pension services. As the aging society in
China has been deepening, their needs and
preferences of the smart pension tend to be
diversified. Although a wide variety of communities,
institutions and other subjects of the smart pension
have taken corresponding measures to satisfy the
diversified needs of the elderly care, the precision
design of the aged and minority groups of the smart
pension service in China’s western ethnic areas still
have considerable improvement rooms.
On the one hand, smart elderly care devices
designed for the aging population are subject to
numerous problems. Several problems remain (e.g.,
the service is difficulty to satisfy the diversified needs
of the aging population, the high price, and their
design defects for applying to the aging population)
since the contradiction between the nature of profit-
seeking and publicity of smart pension enterprises has
not been eliminated.
Moreover, the precise design of service and
product fitting the minority groups has a large room
for improvement for the aging population in ethnic
areas. An interviewee from Xichang city said, "my
Chinese proficiency is not very good, whereas there
is no way to choose my own national language in the
smart device of elder care, which has significantly
hindered my progress (2021-7-13-XCS-MSX-03)".
As revealed by the above finding, for the users of
smart elderly care services in ethnic areas in western
China, products and related services with the low
level of being suitable for aging and nationality will
directly lead to the effect divide.
On the other hand, the lack of uniform standards
of regulatory and supervision in the smart elderly care
service industry leads to the quality of smart elderly
care services supply. An interviewee from Xide
County indicated that "Pop-up ads have occurred
several times in the software of smart elderly care
services, while some functions also require the extra
payment. (2021-7-18-XDX-SYJSQ-01)". As
revealed by the above finding, the differences in the
quality of its products and services are increasingly
prominent since the smart elderly care service has
become increasingly common in Chinese grassroots
and ethnic areas. Moreover, the supervision system of
industry and product quality supervision remains not
perfect. As a result, compared with other developed
and urban areas, the aging population in China’s
western ethnic areas has a significant gap in use effect
of smart pension services. As a result, the generation
of effect divide and the equality of enjoying the
development achievement of Chinese smart pension
services will be damaged.
In brief, factors (e.g., the design defect of service
and product which fitting the minority and aging
groups, lack of uniform standards of regulatory and
supervision of smart elderly care services and related
products) will hinder the aging population in ethnic
areas in western China from bridging the effect divide.
6 SUGGESTIONS
According to the above research results, the gray
divide generated in ethnic areas in Liangshan
Prefecture arises from the failure factors of the aging
population to cross the psychological, access, power
and effect divide. They are intertwined and
complicated, thus leading to the fact that the single
governing subject may can not achieve the
governance goal of bridging the gray divide of smart
elderly care services in there independently.
Accordingly, constructing and improving the
governance system framework of multiple
cooperation in that place is the critical path to bridge
the gray divide in smart elderly care services.
As depicted in Fig. 3, this framework contains two
basic elements: the first is the multiple subjects
participate in the construction of the smart elderly
care in Liangshan Prefecture, such as the
governments, communities and social organizations,
enterprises, and families. The second part is the
combination of the external development
environment and foster conceptual change of the
aging population, and implement the above two
elements into key strategic arrangements (e.g., the
top-level system design, crossing the psychological
divide, access divide, power divide and effect divide)
to achieve the goal of bridge and eliminate the gray
divide of smart elderly care service in Liangshan
Prefecture and further safeguard their equally rights
of enjoying the development achievement of China’s
smart elderly care services.
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