Subjective Well-Being and Its Association with Subjective Health Status, Age, Sex, Region, and Socio-economic Characteristics in a Chinese Population Study

Sun Sun,Magnus Johannesson,Jiaying Chen,Kristina Burström,Paul Kind

doi:10.1007/s10902-014-9611-7

Abstract

This study analyse how subjective well-being (SWB) in a Chinese population varies with subjective health status, age, sex, region and socio-economic characteristics. In the Household Health Survey 2010, face-to-face interviews were carried out in urban and rural counties in eastern, middle and western areas of China (n = 8,000, aged 15–102 years). To measure subjective health status, a global self-rated health question, the EQ-5D descriptive system, and a visual analogue scale of health status was included. To measure SWB, a validated Chinese version of a question on self-reported happiness, adopted from the World Values Survey, was included. SWB increased with socio-economic status (income and education), and was lower among unemployed individuals and divorced individuals. SWB also increased strongly with subjective health status. When health status was divided into different dimensions using the EQ-5D, the anxiety/depression dimension was the most important dimension for SWB. The reported SWB was also higher in rural counties than in urban counties in the same area, after controlling for socio-economic characteristics and subjective health status.

Highlights

Subjective well-being (SWB) refers to people’s self-reported or experienced well-being (Kahneman and Krueger 2006; Stiglitz et al 2009)
With controls for region and socio-economic characteristics subjective well-being (SWB) decreased with age until the 55–64 year age group and was constant, and there was no significant difference between men and women
Most of our findings are consistent with previous studies in China: education and income are positively associated with SWB (Appleton and Song 2008; Chen and Davey 2008a; Knight et al 2009; Knight and Gunatilaka 2010a); being divorced or unemployed has a negative association with SWB (Jiang et al 2012; Shu and Zhu 2008); health status is

Summary

Introduction

Subjective well-being (SWB) refers to people’s self-reported or experienced well-being (Kahneman and Krueger 2006; Stiglitz et al 2009). Findings from studies of SWB in China (Appleton and Song 2008; Bockerman et al 2011; Jiang et al 2012; Knight and Gunatilaka 2010a; Monk-Turner and Turner 2011; Shu and Zhu 2008) are similar to findings from Western countries (Conceicao and Bandura 2008; Diener 1984; Diener et al 1999; Dolan et al 2008). Education and health status are positively associated with SWB, but being divorced or unemployed are negatively associated with SWB

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