Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T06:31:13.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HEALTH OF THE ELDERLY POPULATION IN RACIALLY DIVERSE CITIES AND COUNTIES OF XINJIANG, CHINA1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2011

Yuhui Li  and
Linda Dorsten
Yuhui Li*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Rowan University
Linda Dorsten
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, SUNY Fredonia
*
Yuhui Li, Department of Sociology, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ 08028. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This research examines the impact of ethnic concentration and community socioeconomic status (SES) on elderly health in ethnically diverse communities in Xinjiang in northwest China. Effects of the concentration of two major ethnic populations are compared: the Han, which is the dominant ethnic group in China, and the Uyghur, the largest Muslim group in Xinjiang. Net of socioeconomic status, we find that population densities of the ethnic groups have a significant impact on our aggregate-level indicators of elderly health. Han density predicts good health, while Uyghur density predicts poor health. However, we do not find that SES indicators are independent predictors of community elder health. These findings suggest that rapidly developing economies, like those in China, do not necessarily provide the attention to health care that would result in improved quality of life and health status for the population.

Keywords

EthnicityEthnic CompositionChinaXinjiangElderly HealthSocioeconomic Status
Type
Current Status and Priorities
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 8 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Racial Inequality and Health , Spring 2011 , pp. 53 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

We thank Dr. Lawrence Hotchkiss for his helpful comments and suggestions about some aspects of the data analysis. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this paper.

References

REFERENCES

Becquelin, Nicolas (2004). Staged Development in Xinjiang. In Goodman, David (Ed.), China's Campaign to “Open Up the West”—National, Provincial and Local Perspectives, pp. 44–64. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blumenthal, David and Hsiao, William (2005). Privatization and Its Discontents—The Evolving Chinese Health Care System. New England Journal of Medicine, 353(11): 1165–1170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coale, A. J. and Li, S. (1991). The Effect of Age Misreporting in China on the Calculation of Mortality Rates at Very High Ages. Demography, 28(2): 293–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorsten, Linda and Li, Yuhui (2010). Modeling the Effects of Macro-Measures on Elder Health in China: A “Fresh Sample” Approach, Global Journal of Health Science, 2(1): 8–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorsten, Linda and Li, Yuhui (Forthcoming). More about “Research in Ambiguous, Conflictual, and Changing Contexts”: Studying Ethnic Populations in China, Xi'an to Ürümqi. The Qualitative Report.Google Scholar
Gladney, Dru (2004). The Chinese Program of Development and Control, 1978–2001. In Starr, S. Frederick (Ed.), Xinjiang—China's Muslim Borderland, pp. 101–119. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Gu, Danan and Dupre, Matthew (2008). Assessment of Reliability of Mortality and Morbidity in the 1998–2002 CLHLS Waves. In Yi, Zeng, Poston, Dudley, Vlosky, Denese, and Gu, Danan (Eds.), Healthy Longevity in China, pp. 99–115. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Hannum, Emily and Xie, Yu (1998). Ethnic Stratification in Northwest China: Occupational Differences between Han Chinese and National Minorities in Xinjiang, 1982–1990. Demography, 35(3): 323–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hsiao, William and Liu, Yuanli (1996). Economic Reform and Health—Lessons from China. New England Journal of Medicine, 335(6): 430–432.Google Scholar
Jowett, John and Li, Yuan-Qing (1992). Age-Heaping: Contrasting Patterns from China. Geo Journal, 28(4): 427–442.Google ScholarPubMed
Li, Yuhui (2008). Racial Relations in Xinjiang and Sustainability of Xinjiang Bingtuan's Drive for Urbanization and Modernization. In Keiner, Marco (Ed.), Sustainable Urban Development in China, Wishful Thinking or Reality?, pp. 123–141. Münster, Germany: Verlagshaus Monsenstein Und Vannerdat Ohg.Google Scholar
Li, Yuhui (2009). Notes on the Chinese Government's Handling of the Urumqi Riot in Xinjiang. The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, 7(4): 11–15.Google Scholar
Li, Yuhui and Dorsten, Linda (2010). Regional and Urban/Rural Differences of Public Health in China. Global Journal of Health Science, 2(1): 20–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Yuhui and Qian, Lipeng (2006). The Great Western Development Strategy: Controversy and a Case Study of Zhangye, Gansu Province. Proceedings of the First International Conference of China City Planning and Development and the Third China Planning Network Annual Conference, Beijing, China. June 14–16, 2006.Google Scholar
National Bureau of Statistics of China (2005). China Statistical Yearbook 2005. Beijing, China: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
National Bureau of Statistics of China (2007). 2005 One Percent Population Sample Survey, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Beijing, China: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Potter, Pitman (2010). Dilemmas of Access to Healthcare in China. China: An International Journal, 8(1): 164–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robert, Stephanie (1998). Community-Level Socioeconomic Status Effects on Adult Health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 39(1): 18–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rudelson, Justin Ben-Adam (1997). Oasis Identities of Uyghur Nationalism Along China's Silk Road. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Schuster, Brenda (2009). Gaps in the Silk Road: An Analysis of Population Health Disparities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. China Quarterly, 198: 433–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya (1998). Mortality as an Indicator of Economic Success and Failure. The Economic Journal, 108(446): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shih, Victor (2004). Development, the Second Time Around: The Political Logic of Developing Western China. Journal of East Asian Studies, 4(2004): 427–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toops, Stanley (2004). The Ecology of Xinjiang: A Focus on Water. In Starr, S. Frederick (Ed.), Xinjiang—China's Muslim Borderland, pp. 264–275. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Unger, Jonathan (2002). The Transformation of Rural China. New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc.Google Scholar
Wang, Fei-Ling (2005). Organizing Through Division and Exclusion, China's Hukou System. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Guirong (Ed.) (2005). Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook 2005. Beijing, China: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Williams, David and Collins, Chiquita (1995). U.S. Socioeconomic and Racial Differences in Health: Patterns and Explanations. Annual Review of Sociology, 21(1): 349–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, David, Gonzalez, H., Williams, S., Mohammed, S., Moomal, H., and Stein, D. (2008). Perceived Discrimination, Race and Health in South Africa. Social Science & Medicine, 67(3): 441–452.Google Scholar
Zeng, Yi, Gu, Danan, Purser, Jama, Hoenig, Helen, and Christakis, Nicholas (2010). Associations of Environmental Factors with Elderly Health and Mortality in China. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2): 298–305.Google Scholar
Zeng, Yi, Vaupel, James, Zhenyu, Xiao, Chunyuan, Zhang, and Yuzhi, Liu (2001). The Healthy Longevity Survey and the Active Life Expectancy of the Oldest Old in China. Population: An English Selection, 13(1): 95–116.Google Scholar
Zhu, Jiang and Chen, Zhimin (Eds.) (2006). Urumqi Statistical Yearbook 2006. Beijing, China: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar