相对剥夺对农村中老年人健康状况的影响——基于中国健康与养老追踪调查数据的分析

The Effects of Relative Deprivation on the Health Condition of Chinese Middle and Old-aged Persons in Rural Areas:An Analysis Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study Survey Data

中国农村地区的收入不平等程度和人口老龄化程度都高于城市地区,收入不平等会增加个体遭受到的相对剥夺,而人口老龄化是否会给社会经济带来严重负面影响取决于中老年人群体的健康状况。本文使用中国健康与养老追踪调查2015年数据,以村内其他居民为参照组构建相对剥夺测量指标,考察相对剥夺对中国农村中老年人健康状况的影响。多层模型的估计结果表明,收入的相对剥夺对农村中老年人的健康状况具有显著的负向影响:受较强程度相对剥夺的农村中老年人的自评健康状况较差,精神抑郁程度较高,且这种影响在以不同指标来测量相对剥夺的情况下均存在。进一步地,本文发现,相对剥夺对农村中老年人的客观健康状况并无显著影响,且相对剥夺对健康状况的不利影响主要作用于45～60岁的中年人、男性和来自收入不平等程度较高地区的农村中老年人。收入不平等引致的相对剥夺给农村中老年人的健康状况带来了不利影响,因此,改善农村地区的收入分配格局,有利于农村中老年人保持良好的健康状况。本文研究为深化农村地区的收入分配制度改革提供了相对剥夺和农村居民健康状况关系视角的经验证据。

Both the degree of income inequality and population ageing are more pronounced in rural China than in urban areas.On the one hand,the more unequal a society is economically,the higher the degree of relative deprivation people can feel.On the other hand,whether population ageing has a negative impact on the society depends on the health condition of middle and old-aged persons.Based on those facts,this article uses the recent round of CHARLS data to test relative deprivation hypotheses among Chinese rural middle and old-aged persons.The study uses sample individuals from the same villages as benchmark reference groups to construct three different relative deprivation indexes.The results from multilevel model regressions consistently show that relative deprivation has a significant negative effect on rural elderly’s self-rated health condition and mental health condition.But relative deprivation seems to have little effect on objective heath measures,such as the incidence of functional limitations and chronic diseases.The analysis shows that the negative health effects of relative deprivation are mainly applied to middle-aged persons,male villagers and those coming from provinces with higher income inequality index.The relative deprivation induced by income inequality has caused a huge public health concern in rural societies with population ageing.The study suggests that deepening the income distribution policy reform may improve the health condition of rural population and relieve health burden in rural areas.