Health Outcomes and Socio-economic Status Among the Elderly in China: Evidence from the CHARLS Pilot

Strauss, John S.; Lei, Xiaoyan; Park, Albert Francis; Shen, Yan; Smith, James P.; Yang, Zhe; Zhao, Yaohui

doi:10.1007/s12062-011-9033-9

Cited by 103 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…At older ages, men also consumed more public health resources than women. In general, the urban health insurance scheme is directly tied to employment status before retirement for the elderly, with coverage for other family members not provided (Strauss et al 2012). Higher male employment rates in past decades-especially employment in government and public institutions-means that older men are more likely to be insured or to benefit from generous health insurance packages.…”

Section: A Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefit Incidence of Public Transfers: Evidence from the People's Republic of China

Shi

Lee

2014

SSRN Journal

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Section: A Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefit Incidence of Public Transfers: Evidence from the People's Republic of China

Shi

Lee

2014

SSRN Journal

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“…This is similar to patterns found with current SES variables and 9 CHARLS contains no measures of general optimism or pessimism which would be useful for these subjective measures. BMI, which is monotonically increasing for men but inverted u-shaped for women; Strauss et al 2010). Among Chinese men, the childhood health subjective summary measures reduce the probability of being undernourished, while increasing the probability of being overweight.…”

Section: Empirical Estimates-adult Bmi Depression and Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Childhood Health on Adult Health and SES in China

et al. 2010

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In this paper, we model the associations of childhood health on adult health and socio-economic status outcomes in China using a new sample of middle aged and older Chinese respondents. Modeled after the American Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), the CHARLS Pilot survey respondents are 45 years and older in two quite distinct provinces-Zhejiang, a high growth industrialized province on the East Coast and Gansu, a largely agricultural and poor province in the West. Childhood health in CHARLS relies on two measures that proxy for different dimensions of health during the childhood years. The first is a retrospective self-evaluation using a standard five-point scale (excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor) of general state of one's health when one was less than 16 years old. The second is adult height believed to be a good measure of levels of nutrition during early childhood and the prenatal period. We relate both these childhood health measures to adult health and SES outcomes during the adult years. We find strong associations of childhood health on adult health outcomes particularly among Chinese women and strong associations with adult BMI particularly for Chinese men.This research examines the association of health of Chinese children on their subsequent health and economic status as adults. To do so, we use recently collected data from the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) that was fielded in 2008. The influence of early life and childhood conditions and health on adult outcomes has been examined in many Western countries (Banks, Oldfield, and Smith 2011) and in this paper we extend that investigation to the Chinese context. The health and economic environment in which CHARLS respondents were raised is far different than that the contemporary China in which they now live. CHARLS respondents were born during years 1963 and earlier.During that time, the history of China was quite challenging and tumultuous, especially for children. The enormous diversity in the circumstances of the villages and families in which CHARLS respondents were raised may have lingering and significant impacts on their economic and health lives during adulthood.The revival of interest in determinants and consequences of poor childhood health in general can be traced partly to the impact of studies by David J. Barker (1997). In his work, he provides evidence that even nutrition in utero impacts health outcomes much later during Corresponding author: James P. Smith, The RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 Paper originally presented at a Festschrift in Honor of T. Paul Schultz. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptEcon Dev Cult Change. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 March 26. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript one's adulthood. While controversial, data from natural experiments lend some support to this view. For example, Ravelli et al. (1998) studied people born in Amsterdam who were exposed prenatally to famine ...

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“…While recent research suggests that China's efforts to expand insurance coverage have reached a substantial proportion of the over-45 age group, further action is needed to fully cover these individuals and protect them from impoverishing out-of-pocket spending (Strauss et al, 2012).…”

Section: Table2: "Best Buy" Interventions For Reducing Ncdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The macroeconomic impact of non-communicable diseases in China and India: Estimates, projections, and comparisons

Bloom

Cafiero

McGovern

et al. 2014

The Journal of the Economics of Ageing

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This paper provides estimates of the economic impact of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in China and India for the period 2012-2030. Our estimates are derived using WHO's EPIC model of economic growth, which focuses on the negative effects of NCDs on labor supply and capital accumulation. We present results for the five main NCDs (cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes, and mental health). Our undiscounted estimates indicate that the cost of the five main NCDs will total USD 27.8 trillion for China and USD 6.2 trillion for India (in 2010 USD). For both countries, the most costly domains are cardiovascular disease and mental health, followed by respiratory disease. Our analyses also reveal that the costs are much larger in China than in India mainly because of China's higher income and older population. Rough calculations also indicate that WHO's Best Buys for addressing the challenge of NCDs are highly cost-beneficial.

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Health Outcomes and Socio-economic Status Among the Elderly in China: Evidence from the CHARLS Pilot

Cited by 103 publications

References 38 publications

Benefit Incidence of Public Transfers: Evidence from the People's Republic of China

Benefit Incidence of Public Transfers: Evidence from the People's Republic of China

The Effects of Childhood Health on Adult Health and SES in China

The macroeconomic impact of non-communicable diseases in China and India: Estimates, projections, and comparisons

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