Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Carlo F. Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics and Public Policies and Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.
Int J Public Health. 2017 Nov;62(8):857-867. doi: 10.1007/s00038-017-0970-9. Epub 2017 Apr 22.
To document the association between economic development, income inequality, and health-related public infrastructure, and health outcomes among Chinese adults in midlife and older age.
We use a series of multi-level regression models with individual-level baseline data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS). Provincial-level data are obtained both from official statistics and from CHARLS itself. Multi-level models are estimated with different subjective and objective health outcomes.
Economic growth is associated with better self-rated health, but also with obesity. Better health infrastructure tends to be negatively associated with health outcomes, indicating the likely presence of reverse causality. No supportive evidence is found for the hypothesis that income inequality leads to worse health outcomes.
Our study shows that on top of individual characteristics, provincial variations in economic development, income inequality, and health infrastructure are associated with a range of health outcomes for Chinese midlife and older adults. Economic development in China might also bring adverse health outcomes for this age group; as such specific policy responses need to be developed.
记录中国中年和老年成年人的经济发展、收入不平等与健康相关公共基础设施以及健康结果之间的关联。
我们使用一系列多层次回归模型，这些模型使用中国健康与退休纵向研究（CHARLS）的个体基线数据。省级数据既来自官方统计数据，也来自 CHARLS 本身。使用不同的主观和客观健康结果来估计多层次模型。
经济增长与更好的自我评估健康状况相关，但也与肥胖相关。更好的卫生基础设施往往与健康结果呈负相关，表明可能存在反向因果关系。没有证据支持收入不平等导致更差的健康结果的假设。
我们的研究表明，除了个人特征外，经济发展、收入不平等和卫生基础设施的省级差异与中国中年和老年成年人的一系列健康结果相关。中国的经济发展也可能给这一年龄组带来不良的健康结果；因此需要制定具体的政策应对措施。
