Inequality in Health Status of Elderly Chinese in Cities: A Multilevel Analysis of Migrants and Local Residents

Sisi Yang
Fei Guo, Macquarie University
Zhanxin Zhang, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

It has been well recognised that migrants have been an important part of urban labor force in China and they have made significant contributions to China’s recent economic growth. Yet, there has been inadequate research examining the inequality in health of the elderly by comparing self-rated health status of elderly migrants and elderly local residents both at the individual level and at the provincial level. Based on data from the 2015 Migrant Dynamics Monitoring Survey in China, this paper applies logistic regression model and multilevel analysis to examine the health inequality. It is found that the elderly migrant who held non-local rural hukou reported significantly better self-rated health status than their urban migrant counterparts and local rural hukou holders,but not significantly different from elderly urban residents. In the multilevel analysis, it is expected that provincial variances in the threshold of access to health services would affect the self-rated health status.

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 Presented in Session 7. Migration & Urbanization