Study on the Construction of a Health Lifestyle for Older People in the Longevous Area in China

Abstract

During the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, China has witnessed great progress in people’s health status. Both the occurrence of diseases and people’s understanding of health have undergone profound changes. Scholars are focusing on changing socioeconomic factors to maintain health lifestyles, and creating healthy “human–land” relations to prevent diseases. From the perspective of health geography, this research conducted field work in Bama, a longevous area in the Guangxi province in China, and applied the theoretical framework of health lifestyles theory to clarify the construction process of health lifestyles for older people in Bama. The roles and characteristics of different social relations in creating health lifestyles are revealed. The findings of this research can provide a new paradigm for China’s health practice research from two aspects: (1) the production of health lifestyles is a knowledge construction process, taking into account the influence of social circumstances, politics, economy, culture, policy, and values; and (2) social attributes affect health lifestyles by reconstructing and improving social relations.