Chinese Journal of Sociology

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Socioeconomic Status, Lifestyle and Health Inequality

Wang Funqin，Department of Sociology, School of Political Science and International Relations,Tongji University；Postdoctoral Station of Architecture,Tongji University.   

  1.  Wang Funqin：Department of Sociology, School of Political Science and International Relations, Tongji University；Postdoctoral Station of Architecture,Tongji University.
  • Online:2012-03-20 Published:2012-03-20
  • Contact: Wang Funqin：Department of Sociology, School of Political Science and International Relations, Tongji University；Postdoctoral Station of Architecture,Tongji University. E-mail:wfq0927@163.com
  • About author:Wang Funqin，Department of Sociology, School of Political Science and International Relations, Tongji University;Postdoctoral Station of Architecture,Tongji University.
  • Supported by:

    This research was funded by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation “China’s Urban Middle Classes and the Social Construction Research” (20110490074), the Education Ministry’s Key Subject Research Project “China’s Current Social Class Study” (08JZD0024) and Tongji University National 985 Project “Global Change Research and China’s National Interests”.

PDF

1213

Cited

28

Abstract:

Many studies on health inequality in main European countries and America have found that socioeconomic status (SES) has powerful and sustainable positive relationships with health. Social causation theory has thus been forwarded, stating that SES is the most important determining factor of one’s health, namely, those who have higher SES also have better health. However, its mechanism has not been theoretically explained or tested. On the other hand, socialepidemiology has focused on how healthrelated lifestyle and behavioral factors affect health, but it has neglected the fact that lifestyle isshaped by social structural factors. According to Cockerham’s lifestyle model, the present research treated lifestyle as the mediating mechanism between SES and health in the analysis of the emergence of the health inequality among Chinese citizens. Three hypotheses were developed: first, there existed health inequality among people with different socioeconomic statuses in China; second, healthrelated lifestyle would have a significant effect on health; and third, SES influenced health via lifestyle. All three hypotheses were supported by the data from China General Social Survey (2005). As those developed countries in Europe and America, China apparently had significant health inequality among people: the higher the SES, the better the health status (measured by selfreported method). SES influenced health via healthrelated lifestyle by the healthylifestyledemand mechanism. The groups in higher social statues demanded much more for healthy lifestyle and they were able to afford the expenses to maintain such lifestyle, which in turn directly promoted their health.

Key words: health inequality ,   lifestyle ,   socioeconomic status (SES)