Introduction and Overview

This introductory chapter provides the research background and an overview of the book. The chapter starts with a brief introduction of the aging and health related issues worldwide, it then discusses aging and health issues in China. Afterwards, the chapter provides an overview of existing demographic and sociological studies on older adults’ (including the oldest old’s) health in recent years. Since prior studies on the oldest old are largely cross-sectional, the chapter points out two main goals of the study. First, it aims to use a longitudinal scope to demonstrate how Chinese oldest old’s health status has changed by time period and across birth cohorts during 1998–2018. Second, the study intends to investigate how period and birth cohorts have played a role in the associations between Chinese oldest old’s health and a variety of demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors. To achieve these main goals, the manuscript applies the age-period-cohort (APC) approach and constructs cross-classified random-effects models (CCREMs) to carry out the analyses. Data are from eight waves (1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011–12, 2014 and 2018) of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). The final part of the chapter outlines the objectives and the structure of the book and indicates how this manuscript improves existing literature on Chinese oldest old’s health and its’ determinants.