Results on Health Inequalities from Chinese Aging Study

Health Outcomes and Socio-Economic Status among the Elderly in China: Evidence from the CHARLS Pilot

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics

Author Info

Strauss, John (strauss@usc.edu) (University of Southern California)
Lei, Xiaoyan (xylei@ccer.pku.edu.cn) (Peking University)
Park, Albert (albert.park@economics.ox.ac.uk) (University of Oxford)
Shen, Yan (yshen@ccer.pku.edu.cn) (Peking University)
Smith, James P. (smith@rand.org) (RAND)
Yang, Zhe (Peking University)
Zhao, Yaohui (yhzhao@ccer.pku.edu.cn) (Peking University)
Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

• James P. Smith

Abstract

We are concerned in this paper with measuring health outcomes among the elderly in Zhejiang and Gansu provinces, China, and examining the relationships between different dimensions of health status and measures of socio-economic status (SES). We use the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) pilot data to document health conditions among the elderly in Gansu and Zhejiang provinces, where the survey was fielded. We use a very rich set of health indicators that include both self-reported measures and biomarkers. We also examine correlations between these health outcomes and two important indicators of socioeconomic status (SES): education and log of per capita expenditure (log pce), our preferred measure of household resources. While there exists a very large literature that examines the relationships between SES and health measures, little has been done on Chinese data to see whether correlations reported in many other countries are replicated in China, particularly so for the aged. In general education tends to be positively correlated with better health outcomes, as it is in other countries. However, unmeasured community influences turn out to be highly important, much more so than one usually finds in other countries. While it is not yet clear which aspects of communities matter and why they matter, we set up an agenda for future research on this topic. We also find a large degree of under-diagnosis of hypertension, a major health problems that afflicts the aged. This implies that the current health system is not well prepared to address the rapid aging of the Chinese population, at least not in Gansu and Zhejiang.

RAND Mini-Medical School and Aging Conference

For people working here across economics, psychology, epidemiology and so on it would be a crime not to go through the papers linked on these programmes. Furthermore, programmes (including videos for the last few years) are available. This is a good way to get in touch with some of the state-of-the-art work on social networks and aging; stress, health and aging; behavioural economics and retirement saving; collecting biological markers in social surveys and a wide other variety of issues relating to aging research and aging policy.

Mini-medical school

Demographics, Economics and Epidemiology of Aging

TILDA Design Report

Those interested in aging research should look at the Design Report for the TILDA study in Trinity. This lays out the questions they are asking in the study and how these can be compared to other data-sets such as SHARE.

Height and Aging, 33 and 1/3

This post is an extension of Kevin’s previous post on heights. I cannot find a longitudinal dataset which contains information on objectively measured height over the life-cycle. Despite this, I present some cross-sectional birth-cohort data which is consistent with the hypothesis that aging effects height.

I use two samples from the Health Survey for England, which are ten years apart. Both surveys contain objectively measured height data for a large, nationally representative, sample of the English population. There are over 13,000 observations in each study. Most importantly, height is objectively measured under the same clinical conditions and using the same equipment in both surveys. Details of the height measurement procedure are contained in the Health Survey for England User Guide (AFAIK).

The figure below shows the quadratic prediction of height as a function of year of birth controlling for gender. This figure is both consistent with Kevin’s previous post, which showed no height loss at age 42 (1963), and the hypothesis that there is a negative relationship between height and age, the divergence of the trends as age increases.

TV Feature on TRIL Programme

Below a TV3 feature on the TRIL programme

http://www.tv3.ie/ireland_am.php?video=5483

Aging and Sensor Technology

From the IT Conversations channel, Eric Dishman of INTEL talks about the role of sensor technologies in the development of responses to an aging society

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3904.html

How to Fund Aging - Link Retirement Age to Longevity

Vox blog adds yet another simple and well argued policy suggestion from a well respected source - worth reading this. It is certainly worth questioning whether individuals in their 30s and 40s should view 60 or even 65 as being a realistic retirement age. I know this will depend on one's work environment but there is a growing group of people surely who would not want to retire at this age particularly if they are healthy, productive and gain psychological benefits from continuing to work


link here