The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr 1;19(7):4233. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19074233.
China has witnessed unprecedented rural-to-urban migration since the early 1980s. While trying to assimilate into the city, rural-to-urban migrants still maintain close ties with their home communities. This study examines how local ties and trans-local ties of rural-to-urban migrants affect their alcohol and tobacco use. Data were obtained from the 2016 and 2018 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey, a nationally representative sample of adults aged over 15 in 29 provinces in China. Participants included 1426 rural-to-urban migrant workers and 6438 urban residents in China. We found that compared to urban natives, rural-to-urban migrants had higher tobacco use prevalence (logit = 0.19, 95% CI = [0.03, 0.35]; p < 0.05) and more frequent alcohol use (logit = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.11, 0.42]; p < 0.001) after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Migrants with more local social ties engaged in more frequent drinking (having >10 local friends vs. having 0 local friends: logit = 0.58, [0.10, 1.06], p < 0.05), whereas trans-local ties were not a significant correlate. In contrast, migrants who returned to their hometown more times (an indicator of trans-local ties) were more likely to be current tobacco users (logit = 0.01, 95% CI = [0.00, 0.02], p < 0.01) after adjusting for sociodemographic variables. These findings extended the research on social networks and health behaviors by identifying how local and trans-local ties differentially affected the vulnerabilities of tobacco and alcohol use among rural-to-urban migrants in China. The findings suggested that policies and interventions on reducing migrants’ health risk behaviors should focus on the role of different types of social ties.
自 20 世纪 80 年代初以来，中国经历了前所未有的农村向城市的移民潮。在努力融入城市的过程中，农村向城市的移民仍然与他们的家乡社区保持着密切的联系。本研究考察了农村向城市移民的本地联系和跨地区联系如何影响他们的烟酒使用。数据来自 2016 年和 2018 年中国劳动力动态调查，这是一项对中国 29 个省份 15 岁以上成年人的全国代表性样本。参与者包括 1426 名农村向城市的农民工和 6438 名城市居民。我们发现，与城市本地人相比，农村向城市移民的烟草使用比例更高（对数比=0.19，95%置信区间[0.03，0.35]；p<0.05），在调整社会人口特征后，饮酒频率也更高（对数比=0.27，95%置信区间[0.11，0.42]；p<0.001）。与本地社会联系较多的移民饮酒频率更高（与有 0 个本地朋友相比，有>10 个本地朋友：对数比=0.58，[0.10，1.06]，p<0.05），而跨地区联系则不是一个显著的相关因素。相比之下，更多次返回原籍地（跨地区联系的一个指标）的移民更有可能成为当前的烟草使用者（对数比=0.01，95%置信区间[0.00，0.02]，p<0.01），在调整社会人口变量后。这些发现通过确定本地和跨地区联系如何不同地影响中国农村向城市移民的烟酒使用脆弱性，扩展了社会网络与健康行为的研究。研究结果表明，减少移民健康风险行为的政策和干预措施应侧重于不同类型社会关系的作用。
