Socio-Economic Status and Disability among the Elderly: Evidence from China

Socio-economic status (SES) has been identified as one of the most important demographic and social determinants of older adult health in developed countries. The relationship in developing world has not been as well studied so the generalizability outside the West is unknown. Meanwhile, previous studies suggested a variety of SES indicators in the Chinese elderly population. Using disability (measured by limitations on Activities of Daily Living – ADLs, and/or Instrumental Activities of Daily Living – IADLs) as the health outcome, this study employed logistic regression and Poisson regression to investigate the relationship between SES and disability among old adults in China. The Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) data collected jointly by Duke and Peking Univeristy was used for the analysis. Three sets of SES indicators were used: education (elder's own education and father's education), income/wealth (pension, house ownership, self-rated economic status, and household income), and occupation (elder's own occupation, and father's occupation). Findings include: 1) education (elder's own education as well as father's education) is negatively related to less severe disability (IADLs) but not severe disability (ADLs); 2) self-rated economic status is negatively related to both ADLs and IADLs disabilities, while household income and house ownership do not predict; 3) in general, no significant relationships between the elder's own occupation and father's occupation have been found; 4) while age is positively related to both ADLs and IADLs disabilities, being male and being marital married negatively predict IADL disability only.