Population Research and Policy Review 23: 117–133, 2004.
© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
117
Sociodemographic differentials of the self-rated health of the
oldest-old Chinese
GUIPING LIU
1
& ZHEN ZHANG
2
1
Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research, Konrad-Zuse-Strasse 1, D-18057,
Rostock, Germany;
2
Institute of Population Research, Yunnan University, Kunming City,
China
Abstract. This study explores the correlation between sociodemographic factors and the self-
rated health status of the oldest-old Chinese (80 and older). The data were from the Healthy
Longevity Survey in China conducted in 1998. We applied a stereotype ordered regression
model to capture the ordinal nature of the response variable. We found that age group, sex,
living arrangement, educational attainment, and occupational history were associated signi-
ficantly with the self-rated health status of the oldest-old Chinese, and the elderly with lower
social status tended to negatively evaluate health status. We reached the conclusions after con-
trolling such variables as the capacity of physical performance of daily activities and chronic
diseases.
Keywords: China, Self-rated health, Sociodemographic differentials, Stereotype regression
model, The oldest-old
Introduction
Self-rated health is a concept easily measured in the social sciences. In sur-
veys on self-rated health, the interviewees are asked to estimate their health
status as poor, fair, good, or excellent (George 2001). There are other names
for self-rated health, for example, self-assessed health, self-reported health,
self-assessment of health, perceived health, self-ratings of health, and global
health status. However, they imply the same measurement of health status.
Based on the observations from 158 “in-depth” interviews in the United
States, Krause and Jay (1994) found that not all respondents used the same
frame of reference to self-assess their health status. Seventy percent of the
subjects identified some physical health factor as the basis for self-rated
health. Idler et al. (1999) conducted an investigation on the meaning of
self-ratings of health. Applying both qualitative and quantitative methods,
they found that narrowly biomedical measurements might induce negative
responses of self-assessed health, but “social activities and relationships, psy-
chological, emotional, or spiritual characteristics are related to an optimistic
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