Housing Determinants of Health in Urban China: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Abstract

Housing and health are two important interrelated indicators to measure the quality of life of an individual, the pathways through which housing affects health have continuously attracted worldwide attention from both scholars and policymakers, yet the empirical evidence from China is inexplicably scant. Distinguishing the dual attributes of housing as dwelling space and wealth carrier, in a unified analytical framework, the cross effects of residence-based housing (housing space, quality, and facility) and asset-based housing (housing tenure, affordability, and wealth) on the physical and mental health at the objective level as well as the self-assessed health at the subject level are jointly examined. The structural equation modeling analysis based on the data from China Family Panel Studies identifies the housing determinants that influence health and reveals concrete pathways. Results indicate that residence-based housing plays a dominated role in determining the impact of housing on health than the asset-based housing. More specifically, good residence-based housing condition improves both the physical and mental health, and is associated with well self-assessed health through the transmission mechanism; while the asset-based housing does not show a significant effect on both physical and mental health. Our findings point to the priority of improving dwelling quality to promoting asset building in the housing policy agenda towards health intervention.