Demographic Characteristics and the Oldest Old’s Health

This chapter examines the period and cohort effects when linking a variety of demographic factors to Chinese oldest old’s health. The demographic factors are measured by sex, marital status and rural-urban residence. The results show that when sex is used to predict the oldest old’s health, significant period and cohort effects are shown when estimating SRH, chronic diseases and cognitive function. Significant period effects are found when predicting positive feeling scores and significant cohort effects are observed when estimating negative feeling scores. In terms of the linkage between residence and health, both period and cohort effects are found when predicting SRH, chronic diseases and cognitive function. Significant period effects are found when evaluating the oldest old’s subjective wellbeing. As to marital status, significant period and cohort effects are observed when predicting the oldest old’s chronic diseases, cognitive function and negative feeling scores. Only period effects are observed when predicting SRH and the oldest old’s positive feeling scores. The findings imply that health outcomes of males, rural residents and unmarried respondents are more sensitive to cohort and period variations than their female, urban and married counterparts.