Urban–rural differentials in age-related biological risk among middle-aged and older Chinese

Yuan S. Zhang () and Eileen M. Crimmins ()
Additional contact information
Yuan S. Zhang: University of Southern California
Eileen M. Crimmins: University of Southern California

International Journal of Public Health, 2019, vol. 64, issue 6, No 3, 839 pages

Abstract: Abstract Objectives To assess urban–rural differentials in age-related biological risk among middle-aged and older Chinese and links to individual and community characteristics. Methods Data come from the national baseline survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Biological risk is assessed using a set of measured biomarkers that reflect cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammatory processes. Results Urban residents who are officially registered in urban areas have greater biological risk than rural residents. Having junior school or higher education provides an independent and persistent protective effect against biological risk and eliminates the effect of community-level measures. The reduced physical activity of urban dwellers with urban origins explains a substantial part of the difference in risk. Conclusions Urban dwellers with urban household registration have elevated risk compared with their rural peers, indicating that lifetime exposure to urban areas is an important risk factor for increased biological risk in China. The urban–rural differential in risk is accounted for by adjusting for health behaviors, particularly physical activity. The reduced physical activity among urban dwellers with urban household registration appears to be highly related to their elevated risk. No significant associations between community-level characteristics and biological risk are found beyond individual characteristics.

Keywords: Biomarkers; China; Health disparity; Urban–rural difference; CHARLS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00038-018-1189-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ijphth:v:64:y:2019:i:6:d:10.1007_s00038-018-1189-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/00038

DOI: 10.1007/s00038-018-1189-0

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Thomas Kohlmann, Nino Künzli and Andrea Madarasova Geckova

More articles in International Journal of Public Health from Springer, Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().