Abstract: According to the latest data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics in 2024, the population aged 65 and above reached 210 million, accounting for 14.5% of the total population, transitioning into a deeply aging society. The key characteristics of this demographic shift include a large elderly population base, a rapid aging process and an increasing dependency ratio. Among various strategies to address aging, community-based home care services stand out. However, research on the evaluation system for the quality of those services remains a challenge. Currently, studies related to evaluation indicators for the quality of community-based home care in China are still in the phase of theoretical development. Issues exist, such as the incomplete establishment of indicator systems, subjective indicator selection, a narrow research perspective, strong subjectivity in weighting models and limited empirical data.
In response to these challenges, this study explores new approaches to building a quality evaluation system for service. First, a specialized lexicon for community elderly care services is created. This lexicon is built by data mining, natural language processing and search engine algorithms, drawing from policy documents and academic literature. Key terms are identified through methods like extraction of seed word, information entropy and Pointwise Mutual Information (PMI), and categorized by semantic co-occurrence network analysis. The lexicon covers areas such as daily care, domestic services, medical and nursing care, physical and mental health, safety and privacy, community facilities and service regulation. Next, a comprehensive evaluation framework is developed from both the supply and demand perspectives. This framework is built based on models such as Andersen’s behavioral model and needs theory. Using the identified key terms, we expand and refine the lexicon to establish a quality evaluation system with seven dimensions: daily care, rehabilitation, health and well-being, safety, community facilities, service completeness and quality regulation. The framework is validated and refined through expert consultations to ensure content validity. Finally, the reliability of this framework is tested through field research. A measurement scale is developed based on the theoretical framework, and survey data are collected from 1,188 respondents in a newly classified first-tier city in the west of China (referred to as ‘City C’). By SPSS and AMOS, we confirm that the framework meets the standard requirements of reliability (Cronbach’s α, composite reliability) and validity (convergent and discriminant validity). Additionally, the cumulative variances explained by the extracted factors from both supply and demand sides are 72.385% and 70.578%, respectively (both above the 60% threshold), demonstrating robust factor extraction. CRITIC method and logarithmic smoothing Weighted Average Aggregation (WAA) are used to calculate the weights of indicators, allowing us to assess the current state of development of service quality.
On this basis, we enhance the existing ‘5A’ service quality assessment model by proposing a new ‘9-level’ standard, further improving the evaluation framework. The study concludes by highlighting its advantages and significance in terms of research pathways, perspectives and methodologies. It also provides policy recommendations aimed at balancing service resources allocation, aligning expectations and satisfaction levels between supply and demand, enhancing quality supervision and control, and strengthening a continuous feedback mechanism for improvement. This research offers valuable insights for the sustainable development of elder care services and the quantitative evaluation of service quality.

Key words: service quality assessment, domain vocabulary, indicator system, community and home-based elderly care

摘要： 社区居家养老作为应对老龄化的优势策略,对其服务质量评价有助于推动养老行业健康发展。目前我国相关研究仍处于理论阶段,存在指标体系建立不足、赋权主观性过强、实证数据少等问题。本文从新的路径和视角出发,以安德森行为模型、数据挖掘、自然语言处理等方法为基础,通过文本挖掘构建领域词库并进行主题分类,从“生活照料、康复护理、身心健康、安全保障、社区配套、社区完善性、质量监管”7个方面构建供需双边视域的评价体系,并通过内容效度理论检验。然后实地调研获取1188份样本数据,通过因子分析,显示该指标体系信度(Cronbach’s α,CR)和效度(聚敛、区分等)均较好。本文采用CRITIC法和对数平滑WAA测度指标权重,并获得指标得分。结果证明,该指标体系具有客观高效、灵活性强、实际应用价值高的特点。此外,本文制定了服务质量的“9级”评判等级标准,进一步完善了指标体系。本文建议平衡资源配置,平衡供需期望,加强监管和质量控制,加强持续改进与反馈机制。

关键词: 服务质量评估, 领域词库, 指标体系, 社区居家养老