Shanghai has established a unified standard to categorize elderly people into several different grades for nursing, according to the city's civil affairs department.

The standard, the first of its kind in the country, will be formally implemented from May 1.

Under the standard, elderly people will be given a comprehensive evaluation, such as self-care ability, cognitive ability, emotional behavior and visual ability. They will be graded into different levels and nursing homes and staff will provide care for the elderly based on their grading.

Meanwhile, elderly people who no longer have the ability to self-care and have limited finances will receive subsidies from the government.

Shanghai is first city in China that will have to deal with a largely aged society. By the end of 2012, the city will have more than 600 nursing homes with over 100,000 beds, serving about 270,000 elderly.