Self-Assessed Health and Perceptions of Fairness in Metropolitan China: A Social Capital Perspective

Abstract

This article uses the novel survey data of three megacities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to examine the relationships among social class, social capital, individual self-reported health, and perceptions of fairness. Using two sets of ordinal logit regression models, the study reveals the predominantly significant role of class position in determining self-assessed health, and in turn, the strong associations among social capital, health and perceptions of fairness. In conclusion, the article provides policy implications for treating health inequity in the broader social context of an increasingly complicated class structure in urban China.