Abstract
Previous health studies have focused on the correlation between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. We pooled data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (N = 9765) conducted in 2011, and examined the association of SES and health-related behavior with elderly health in China. The cumulative health disadvantage of the elderly caused by SES can be relieved by lifelong health-related behavior. In the same SES, the odds of self-rated health (SRH) as “good,” mini-mental state examination (MMSE) as “not impaired,” and activities of daily living (ADLs) as “not impaired” among the elderly who exercised regularly, were 46.9%, 28.6%, and 62.3% lower for the elderly who rarely exercised. The elderly who started doing regular exercise from 30 years old, achieved higher SRH, ADL, and MMSE scores to some extent. The health improvement advantage for the elderly who started doing regular exercises after 60 years old, was reduced. However, the odds of SRH as “good,” MMSE as “not impaired,” and ADLs as “not impaired” were still 3.4%, 12.5%, and 17.8%, respectively, higher than the respondents who never exercised. The health-related behaviors not only promote elderly health improvement, but its duration has also been found to be associated with the extent of health improvement.
Highlights
The positive association between elderly health and socioeconomic status (SES) has been widely documented in the literature [1] and can be summarized into two perspectives: social causation and health selection [2]
The purpose of the present study is to examine the following hypotheses: 1. Childhood SES and adulthood SES are associated with elderly health, and such an association is higher for adulthood SES
We find that health-related behavior are significantly associated with the elderly heath, and lifelong regular exercises can relieve the cumulative disadvantages of elderly health caused
Summary
The positive association between elderly health and socioeconomic status (SES) has been widely documented in the literature [1] and can be summarized into two perspectives: social causation and health selection [2]. Social causation proposes that the individual health level is associated with social structure position [3]. Individuals with higher SES possess greater health advantages than those with lower SES. A high income increases the advantages of medical and service access, enabling individuals to cultivate a relatively healthy lifestyle [5, 6]. Health selection deems that health condition is a screening mechanism of social mobility. Health gaps among different SES groups may be the result of “selection.” Individuals with better health conditions may gain higher SES, and individuals with poorer health conditions tend
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