Living Arrangement Concordance and Health among Chinese Elders

Melanie Sereny, Duke University

Many studies have looked at the relationship between living arrangement and overall health of the elderly, but little research takes seniors’ preferred living arrangement into account. This paper uses cross-sectional data from the 2005 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey to examine what factors predict concordance between actual and preferred living arrangements for the elderly in China and how living arrangement concordance influences self-rated health. This analysis focuses on elders who co-reside with children or who live alone/with a spouse only. Covariates predict concordance differently among elders who co-reside with children versus those who live alone/with spouse only. Concordance, net of other factors, predicts better self-rated health among elders who live alone/with spouse only, but does not seem significant among those who co-reside with children.