Urbanization, economic development and health: evidence from China’s labor-force dynamic survey

International Journal for Equity in Health

Research

Desheng Xue¹  Ye Liu¹  Hongsheng Chen²  Zhigang Li³ 

[1] School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Xingang Xi Road, 510275, Guangzhou, China;School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Xingang Xi Road, 510275, Guangzhou, China;School of Architecture, Southeast University, Si-Pai-Lou Road No.2, 210096, Nanjing, China;School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Ba-Yi Road No.299, 430072, Wuhan, China;

关键词: Urbanization;    Economic development;    Health;    Income inequality;    China;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-017-0705-9

 received in 2017-06-30, accepted in 2017-11-23,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe frequent outbreak of environmental threats in China has resulted in increased criticism regarding the health effects of China’s urbanization. Urbanization is a double-edged sword with regard to health in China. Although great efforts have been made to investigate the mechanisms through which urbanization influences health, the effect of both economic development and urbanization on health in China is still unclear, and how urbanization-health (or development-health) relationships vary among different income groups remain poorly understood. To bridge these gaps, the present study investigates the impact of both urbanization and economic development on individuals’ self-rated health and its underlying mechanisms in China.MethodsWe use data from the national scale of the 2014 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey to analyze the impact of China’s urbanization and economic development on health. A total of 14,791 individuals were sampled from 401 neighborhoods within 124 prefecture-level cities. Multilevel ordered logistic models were applied.ResultsModel results showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between individuals’ self-rated health and urbanization rates (with a turning point of urbanization rate at 42.0%) and a positive linear relationship between their self-rated health and economic development. Model results also suggested that the urbanization-health relationship was inverted U-shaped for high- and middle-income people (with a turning point of urbanization rate at 0.0% and 49.2%, respectively), and the development-health relationship was inverted U-shaped for high- and low-income people (with turning points of GDP per capita at 93,462 yuan and 71,333 yuan, respectively) and linear for middle-income people.ConclusionThe impact of urbanization and economic development on health in China is complicated. Careful assessments are needed to understand the health impact of China’s rapid urbanization. Social and environmental problems arising from rapid urbanization and economic growth should be addressed. Equitable provision of health services are needed to improve low-income groups’ health in highly urbanized cities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017