Landless female peasants living in resettlement residential areas in China have poorer quality of life than males: results from a household study in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Ying Liang,Shuqin Li

doi:10.1186/1477-7525-12-71

Abstract

BackgroundUrbanization has accelerated in China, and a large amount of arable land has been transformed into urban land. Moreover, the number of landless peasants has continually increased. Peasants lose not only their land, but also a series of rights and interests related with land. The problems of landless peasants have been long-standing; however, only a few studies have examined their health or quality of life (QOL). This paper assesses the QOL of landless peasants in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, analyzes gender differences, and explores health inequity.MethodsData are derived from household samples in six resettlement residential areas of three cities (Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou) in the YRD region (N = 1,500; the effective rate = 82.4%). This study uses the short version of World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) scale to measure the QOL of landless peasants, and performs confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and analyze gender differences in QOL on the basis of CFA.Results and conclusion First , we use Analysis of Variance and Non-parametric Tests to test if the differences of mean value of testing generals have statistical significances. Results shows significant differences occur between the impacts of different genders on the four domains of QOL (physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment). The internal reliability of the WHOQOL-BREF scale is good (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.8), and the four domains of QOL are connected with each other. Second , scores in each QOL domain are commonly low, whereas the scores of females are much lower, indicating a poorer QOL than that of males. Third , results of the CFA of the QOL domains and their related observed variables indicate a good model fit. Fourth , results imply that the order of importance of the four domains (psychological health (males = 26.74%, females = 27.17%); social relationships (males = 26.23%, females = 25.35%); environment (males = 25.70%, females = 24.40%); and physical health (males = 21.33%, females = 23.08%)) affecting QOL from high to low is the same for landless male and female peasants, whereas the proportion of importance is different between genders. The results highlight the importance of government intervention to improve the QOL of Chinese landless peasants, ultimately reducing health inequity.

Highlights

Industrialization and urbanization have accelerated in China in recent years, and these trends have been accompanied by the increasing scale of arable land expropriated and the increasing number of landless peasants
An increasing amount of collective land in rural China are being occupied and transformed into urban land using all types of methods, Traditional peasants used to make a living on land; an increasing number of peasants are losing their land [2]
The results indicated unsatisfactory scores in the four domains of WHOQOL-BREF among landless peasants

Summary

Introduction

Industrialization and urbanization have accelerated in China in recent years, and these trends have been accompanied by the increasing scale of arable land expropriated and the increasing number of landless peasants. Based on the growth rate and huge command of construction in the urbanization of China, the number of peasants whose land would be expropriated is predicted to increase to 42 million by 2020, and the total number is expected to exceed 100 million by 2030 [1]. Landless peasants living in resettlement residential areas in China have been a long-standing problem. The problems of landless peasants have been long-standing; only a few studies have examined their health or quality of life (QOL). This paper assesses the QOL of landless peasants in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, analyzes gender differences, and explores health inequity

Methods

Results

Conclusion