In the dual context of labor force transfer and aging, this paper focuses on the mechanisms of rural children's mobility on the self-rated health and chronic disease status of rural empty nesters and compares the different effects of two intergenerational support modalities: financial support and proximity to residence on the health status of rural empty nesters. Using CHARLS data from 2015 and 2018, and using propensity score matching and double difference methods, we found that rural-urban child migration significantly worsened the self-rated health and increased the prevalence of some diseases among the empty nesters. Finally, the distance of children's mobility was used as a threshold to investigate which mobility distance was most beneficial to the health of the empty nesters. The results showed that the best self-rated health status of the empty nesters was achieved when their mobile children were in the same county/district but in different villages/communities. The above study provides a reference for the development of targeted policies for the care of rural empty nesters.