Abstract
The present study uses data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) to develop a multidimensional measure for the healthiness of Chinese citizens’ lifestyles. A latent class analysis reveals variety in Chinese people’s lifestyles. Three categories are identified: the healthy, the mixed, and the risky. People with higher socio-economic status (SES) are polarized between the healthy and the risky lifestyles, while those with lower SES tend to have a more mixed lifestyle. Generally speaking, Chinese people’s lifestyles are in constant change. Located in an advantageous social-structural position, members of the upper strata manage to choose the lifestyle beneficial to their health. At the same time, however, they are influenced by western lifestyles. Members of the lower strata are more constrained by social-structural status.
Highlights
The first 60 years of the twentieth century were dubbed “the age of medicine.” Largescale vaccination essentially eliminated or suppressed the incidence and death rates of infectious diseases
There is no significant difference in the probability of high-income people to have a healthy lifestyle versus a risky lifestyle, whereas low-income people tend to have a mixed lifestyle
Cholesterol transitions theory is built on the nutrition tradition theory (Popkin, 2003) that argues that Chinese people’s lifestyles have changed in the process of social economic transition and are influenced by western societies
Summary
The first 60 years of the twentieth century were dubbed “the age of medicine.” Largescale vaccination essentially eliminated or suppressed the incidence and death rates of infectious diseases. For the individualist approach, the mechanism linking SES to healthy lifestyles includes social pressure, expectations, cognition, awareness, efficacy, agency, and assistance These provide concrete explanations for members of the lower social strata to engage in risky health-related behaviors. Class differences in healthy lifestyles the correlation between low SES and risky behavior has passed empirical tests in most countries, it is not supported by a number of research in China Wang and his colleagues have found that high-income Chinese families and urban residents purchase more snacks and fried foods than low-income families and rural residents. The status constraint hypothesis is based on the healthy lifestyle reproduction theory It emphasizes how social-structural locations differentiate the resources people of different SES have in their disposal, and this in turn constrains their opportunities. They yield different predictions about the SES-healthy lifestyle relationship in China
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