Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health in China: A Reassessment with Data from the 2010-2012 China Family Panel Studies

Abstract

Socioeconomic inequality in China has been rapidly rising, along with the country’s fast economic growth in recent decades. The Gini coefficient for income inequality, for example, has increased from about 0.30 in 1980 to the 0.53–0.55 range around 2010, well above the current levels in the US, around 0.45 (Xie and Zhou 2014) or OECD countries, ranging in 0.25–0.50 (OECD 2012). It is well known that health status varies systematically by socioeconomic status (SES), although empirical evidence has been gathered mainly from the developed world (Link and Phelan 1995; Phelan et al. 2010). The escalation in socioeconomic inequality may, in turn, drive up health disparities by SES in China. Unfortunately, empirical evidence concerning health inequality by SES in China remains limited, partly due to lack of population-representative quality data.