Health Status of the Elderly in China

Jie Huang, University of California at Berkeley

With the expected rapid aging of the society in China, the health status of the elderly becomes increasingly important for its health care policy. This study investigates the health status of the Chinese elderly in terms of morbidity, disability and mortality, using China 1992 Sampling Survey of Supporting System for the Elderly and two waves of China Health and Nutrition Survey (1993 and 1997). Methodologically, this paper adopts the Grade of Membership techniques to develop a limited number of health indices from a rich set of health indicators, which recognizes the multidimensionality of health and allows for the heterogeneity of the health among elderly. These health indices are used in the subsequent analysis of the health and socioeconomic status (SES). Theoretically, this paper intends to provide new insights into the relationship between SES and health by expanding the research scope to a developing country, China.