Curse or Blessing? Obesity and Income-Related Inequality in the Chinese Labor Force

Abstract

China owns a huge labor force of around half billion workers in 2018. However, little is known about the prevalence of obesity and the association between obesity and economic status in this special population. By employing the concentration index (CI) and decomposition analysis, this paper addresses this knowledge gap by using the most recent nationally representative dataset. In specific, this study examines the prevalence of obesity and the socioeconomic gradient in the probability of obesity among Chinese workers between 16 and 65. Our results show that the prevalence of obesity is completely different by using a different measure: the overall prevalence of being general obesity (measured by body mass index, BMI ≥ 28) varies by gender and residency from a minimum of 5.88% to a maximum of 9.46%, whereas abdominal obesity (measured by waist circumference, WCmale ≥ 85 cm & WCfemale ≥ 80 cm) prevalence presents a socking level from 64.53% to 67.69%. Moreover, the results show a pro-rich distribution of obesity (general and abdominal) among male workers (CIBMI = 0.112; CIWC = 0.057) and a pro-poor distribution among female workers (CIBMI = −0.141; CIWC = −0.166). We also find that the direction of the contribution of socioeconomic factors to income-related inequalities in obesity differs by gender. These results have substantial implications for the measurement of socioeconomic inequality in adiposity and for improving health-related policies targeting the Chinese labor force.

Assessing the income-related inequality in obesity among the elderly in China: A decomposition analysis

“…More than half of the older adults included in this study were at normal weight levels, and 29.31% were overweight. The prevalence of obesity among the elderly was 7.99%, a value similar to that of the Chinese labor force (53), but lower than the results from Iran (54) and Malaysia (55). Compared to other developing countries in Asia, our study observed a lower prevalence of obesity among the elderly.…”

The Contribution of the Underlying Factors to Socioeconomic Inequalities in Obesity: A Life Course Perspective

“…Moreover, the concentration index (CI) for obesity was 1.6 times higher in adulthood than in childhood, indicating that obesity was more concentrated among affluent participants in adulthood compared to childhood. Previous studies in China also showed that children or adults with high socioeconomic status had a higher risk of obesity, and CIs of adult obesity ranged from 0.01 to 0.15 [ 28 , 29 ]. And the pro-rich inequality continued to aggravate from childhood to adulthood in China [ 2 , 8 ].…”

“…For example, a study in western Iran showed that socioeconomic factors accounted for 75.8% of the inequalities in childhood obesity [ 40 ]. The other study among Chinese workers found individual wage played a key role for pro-rich obesity both in males (77.68%) and females (41.56%) [ 28 ]. The results from a Spanish study indicated that household income contributed to 65.9% of the equality in childhood obesity [ 41 ].…”