Education and Occupation as Factors Affecting Longevity and Healthy of Chinese Elderly LI Jianmin Institute of Population and Development Nanakai University

Questions  Why some people are healthier and more longevity than the others in the same cohort?  Are there any differences in life and health among the people who are different in social and economic characteristics?

Aim of this Study  This paper studied the influences of social and economic conditions on the longevity and healthy of Chinese elders.  Considering the availability and consistency of the data, this paper use educational attainments and occupation as the basic indexes to judge the forepassed living conditions of the elderly, because that both education and occupation have the function of social stratification.

Hypothesis

Generally speaking, there are five kinds of factors inflecting people’s life, including:  Biologic or genic factors;  Social and economic factors;  Scientific and technologic factors;  Individual life style and behavior mode;  Accidental events.

Time Effects Time is a very important variable in research of human’s longevity. Compared with time dimension, genic factor is an invariable factor, and the relation of life style and behavior mode and time is not clear or exact, but say the least of it, social and economic factors, scientific and technologic factors, and accident events are all the dependent variables of time.

Hypothesis  The more the educational attainments the elderly had, the better the living conditions of their parental families;  The more the educational attainments the elderly had, the better their occupation and the living conditions they have;

Hypothesis  The more the educational attainments the elderly had, the better their occupation and the more the income they had, and then the better the life they have after retirement;  The better the living condition, education and occupation the elderly had, the better medical service they get;

Hypothesis  The better the education and occupation the elderly had, the more advantage their descendants have in their human capital investment and career development, then the living conditions of the elderly are better.

Analytic Framework Educational attainments and occupation are only two explain variables to be used in analysis directly in this paper because of the limit of the data attainability. The functions of the other variables in the analytical framework can only be decided by knowledge, as the judge from the hypothesis above.

Analytic Framework for the Relationship between Education /Occupation and Longevity/Healthy of the Elderly Parental Family Family Occupation Living Condition Longevity & Healthy Medical & Medicine Living Condition Income Individual Behavior + Education

Data

 The data of “The Healthy Longevity Survey in China” (HLS) by Research Group of Healthy Longevity in China in 1998 and 2000;  The data of censuses of China in 1982,1990,and 2000.

The samples of LHS in 1998 are the elderly aged 80 + who were 64 + in So the elders aged 64 + in 1982 as the population for the samples aged 80+ in 1998, because the proportion of the elders aged 80 and over in 1982 who are still alive in 1988 is very low. That means that the start of the analysis is not the whole born cohorts of the elderly who were older than 80 in 1998,but the cohorts of those who were still living older than 63 in 1982.

Conversion Standards of Educational Attainments Years of Schooling Education Attainments 0-2 years Illiteracy & Semi-Illiteracy 3-6 years Primary School 7-9 years Middle School years High School 13 years and above College and over

Distributions of the Elderly by Educational Attainments In HLS and Census of China (%) Educational Attainments Male Elderly Aged 80+Female Elderly Aged 80+ HLS 1998 HLS 2000 Census 2000 LHS 1998 LHS 2000 Census 2000 Illiteracy&Semi- Illiteracy Primary School Middle School High School College and above

About occupation: The definition of occupation used in HLS refers to the main occupation the elderly concerned had before 60 years old. Those aged in 1998 reached their age of 60 was during the period During that period of China the people rarely had opportunities to change their jobs, especially for the people who were 50 years old and over.

Methodology

The method applied in this study is cohort analysis, by which to investigate the differentials in the life experiences of cohorts.  To calculate the percentage distributions of the elderly aged 64 + in 1982 and the elderly aged 80 + in 1998 in the same cohort by educational attainments and occupations, respectively.  To calculate the ratios of the two distributions by educational attainments and occupation, respectively.

For the ratio of distributions by educational attainment

For the ratio of distributions by occupation

The logic of the methodology is that if no or litter difference exits among the elderly who are different in educational attainments and occupation, two series of distributions has no or litter difference, namely the ratio is equal to 1 or close to 1. Vise versa, it can testify the essential influences of education and occupation to survive and longevity.

The Main Events Experienced by the Elderly Concerned

Year of Birth Japanese Invade Found of P.R.China GCR StartGCR EndReformHLS

Main Findings

Observation on the Relationship between Education and Longevity/Health

Distribution of Male Elderly Aged 64+ in 1982 and 80+ in 1998 by Educational Attainments (percent ) Educational Attainments TotalUrbanRural Cens HLS 1998 Cens HLS 1998 Cens HLS 1998 Illiteracy & Semi-Illiteracy Primary School Middle School High School College and above

Distribution of Female Elderly Aged 64+ in 1982 and 80+ in 1998 by Educational Attainments (percent ) Educational Attainments TotalUrbanRural Cens HLS 1998 Cens HLS 1998 Cens HLS 1998 Illiteracy & Semi-Illiteracy Primary School Middle School High School College and above

The Ratios of Distribution of the Male Elderly by Educational Attainments in 1982 and 1998 (1982=1) Age in 1982 Educational Attainments Age In 1998 Illiteracy & Semi- Illiteracy Primary School Middle School High School College and over

The Ratios of Distribution of the Female Elderly by Educational Attainments in 1982 and 1998 (1982=1) Age in 1982 Educational Attainments Age in 1998 Illiteracy & Semi- Illiteracy Primary School Middle School High School College and over

Distribution of Female Elderly by Their Husbands’ Educational Attainments in 1998 (percent) Age Educational Attainments of Husband Illiteracy & Semi- Illiteracy Primary School Middle School High School College and over Total

A. Relationship of education and longevity of the elderly  Regardless of male and female among the different ages, the ratios for illiterate and semi-illiterate distribution are all less than 1, while other education degree’s ratio is all more than 1. It testifies that the higher education degree, the higher probability to survival.

A. Relationship of education and longevity of the elderly  In two distributing ratios, the difference among the male elderly is obvious more than the female. It indicates the influence of education to the male’s life is more than the female.

A. Relationship of education and longevity of the elderly  The female’s life has close correlation with her spouse’s educational attainments, whose influence is even more than her own educational attainments That is because, to the elderly female, her living condition depends on her spouse’s earning capability and social and economic status of the family they married into.

Correlation Coefficient between Self-rated with Life as “Very Good” of the Elderly and Their Years of Schooling Age Group Urban Male Urban Female Rural Male Rural Female Total

Correlation Coefficient Between Years of Schooling and Status of Health of the Elderly Status of health Male Female TotalUrbanRuralTotalUrbanRural Very good in health Have no chronic diseases Fully independent in daily living Complete cognitive ability

B. Relationship of education and Health of the elderly  As a whole, the relationship of elderly’s education attainments and their self-rated with life, health condition and cognitive ability is positive correlative. But it is not true for elderly in the rural areas, especially for female.  For elderly male schooling years is negative correlative to the fully independent in the daily living. That is possibly because the more educated were more engaged in the brainwork while the less educated were more engaged in the physical work.

Observation on the Relationship between Occupation and Longevity

Distribution of Male Elderly Aged 64+ in 1982 and 80+ in 1998 by Occupation (percent) Occupation TotalUrbanRural Cens HLS 1998 Cens HLS 1998 Cens HLS 1998 Administrator Professional and technical Industrial worker Commercial and service worker Peasant Other

Distribution of Female Elderly Aged 64+ in 1982 and 80+ in 1998 by Occupation (percent) Occupation TotalUrbanRural Cens HLS 1998 Cens HLS 1998 Cens HLS 1998 Administrator Professional and technical Industrial worker Commercial and service worker Peasant Other

Ratios of Distributions of Elderly Aged in 1982 and in 1998 by Occupation (1982=1) Occupation TotalUrbanRural MaleFemaleMaleFemaleMaleFemale Administrator Professional and technical Industrial worker Commercial and service worker Peasant Other

C. Relationship of Occupation and Longevity of the elderly  As the whole, the higher occupation status the old male engaged in before, the higher their survival probability to longevity. If we neglect the group of “others”, “professional and technician” has the highest survival ratio, and then worker and administrator, and the survival ratio for peasants is the lowest.

C. Relationship of Occupation and Longevity of the elderly  As the whole for female, neglecting the group of “others”, worker has the highest survival ratio, and then professional and technician, and peasants have the lowest.  The most deservingly noticed a phenomenon is that no matter who are in urban or rural, administrators have the lowest survival probability to longevity.

C. Relationship of Occupation and Longevity of the elderly  There is much difference in survival ratios for different group of old people between the urban and the rural.  For male in urban, the highest survival ratio belongs to professional, technician and industrial workers, the ratio for commercial and service workers is the lowest.

C. Relationship of Occupation and Longevity of the elderly  For female in rural, people engaged in commercial service has the highest survival ratio, and then administrator and professional and technician.  For male elderly, the diversity of occupation distribution ratios is more than that within old female, which means the influence that occupation stratification makes on survive for male elderly is more than that for female elderly.

C. Relationship of Occupation and Longevity of the elderly  In all categories, the old belong to the group of “others” have the highest survival probability. However, we still should considerately look on this result, because we still don’t know the detail conditions of the two “others” categories in the census of 1982 and LHS of 1998.

C. Relationship of Occupation and Longevity of the elderly  The influence of spouse’s occupation on survival probability to advanced age for female is more notable. It is observed that female whose husband engaged in administrative has the highest survival probability, and then the wife of professional and technician. That means the occupation of husband is a very important factor for wife’s life.

Conclusion

 In this paper we proved that social and economic factors could make much importance on people’s longevity and health, in this point, education and occupation are two important explaining variables.  This research shows that the higher people’s education degree, the higher whose occupation has the rank in occupation stratification, and the higher their survival ratio is.  While for China’s current old female, their husbands’ education degree and occupation make more notable influences on their health and longevity.

 Actually, education and occupation are not direct factors affecting people’s health and lifespan; they must apply force through other approximate variables. For example, education can not only enhance people’s income-earning abilities, also can increase people’s knowledge and understanding on health, and also the abilities of using medical treatment conditions. These factors all can enhance the health of people and their families.

 Before reform in China, differentials in education attainments and status of occupation implicated the differentials in the rights to have benefits and welfare from national public recourses. In other words, the people who have higher education degree mostly have occupation in formal sector while these people can attain “institutional benefits” and “institutional protection” which cannot be got by the people of informal sectors.

 With much influences education and occupation put on people’s health and longevity, we can make sure that the age of Chinese longevity has come, that’s because the opportunities of people’s education and social mobility are enlarged continuously, and also there are rapid developments in social and economic developments in China.

Thank you