IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v179y2017icp172-181.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of community context on children's health and nutritional status in China

Author

Listed:
  • Lei, Lei

Abstract

The link between community environment and individual health outcomes has been widely documented in Western literature, but little is known about whether community context influences children's health over and above individual characteristics in developing countries. This study examines how community socioeconomic status (SES) influences children's self-rated health and nutritional status in urban and rural China and explores whether the effects of community SES vary by a child's gender and family background. Using data from the China Family Penal Studies in 2010, this study focuses on children aged 10–15 years old living in 261 urban neighborhoods and 293 rural villages in China. Multilevel regression models are estimated to examine the effect of community SES on the probability of reporting poor/fair health and nutritional status measured by height for age while controlling for individual and family characteristics. The results suggest that community SES has a positive and curvilinear effect on children's health and nutritional status in urban China, and it only positively influences children's nutrition in rural China. Community SES has a stronger effect for boys than for girls, and for children in poorer families and families with lower levels of parental involvement.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei, Lei, 2017. "The impact of community context on children's health and nutritional status in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 172-181.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:179:y:2017:i:c:p:172-181
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.02.028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617301260
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.02.028?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zimmer, Zachary & Wen, Ming & Kaneda, Toshiko, 2010. "A multi-level analysis of urban/rural and socioeconomic differences in functional health status transition among older Chinese," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 559-567, August.
    2. Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2006. "Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 450-474, July.
    3. King, Gary & Zeng, Langche, 2001. "Logistic Regression in Rare Events Data," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 137-163, January.
    4. Sallis, James F. & Saelens, Brian E. & Frank, Lawrence D. & Conway, Terry L. & Slymen, Donald J. & Cain, Kelli L. & Chapman, James E. & Kerr, Jacqueline, 2009. "Neighborhood built environment and income: Examining multiple health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1285-1293, April.
    5. Do, D. Phuong & Wang, Lu & Elliott, Michael R., 2013. "Investigating the relationship between neighborhood poverty and mortality risk: A marginal structural modeling approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 58-66.
    6. Frank, Lawrence Douglas & Saelens, Brian E. & Powell, Ken E. & Chapman, James E., 2007. "Stepping towards causation: Do built environments or neighborhood and travel preferences explain physical activity, driving, and obesity?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1898-1914, November.
    7. Fulong Wu, 2004. "Urban poverty and marginalization under market transition: the case of Chinese cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 401-423, June.
    8. Burdette, Amy M. & Hill, Terrence D., 2008. "An examination of processes linking perceived neighborhood disorder and obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 38-46, July.
    9. Drukker, Marjan & Kaplan, Charles & Feron, Frans & van Os, Jim, 2003. "Children's health-related quality of life, neighbourhood socio-economic deprivation and social capital. A contextual analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(5), pages 825-841, September.
    10. Michael Kremer & Dan Levy, 2008. "Peer Effects and Alcohol Use among College Students," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 189-206, Summer.
    11. David J. Harding & Lisa Gennetian & Christopher Winship & Lisa Sanbonmatsu & Jeffrey R. Kling, 2010. "Unpacking Neighborhood Influences on Education Outcomes: Setting the Stage for Future Research," NBER Working Papers 16055, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Pengjun Zhao, 2013. "The Impact of Urban Sprawl on Social Segregation in Beijing and a Limited Role for Spatial Planning," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 104(5), pages 571-587, December.
    13. Wen, Ming & Browning, Christopher R. & Cagney, Kathleen A., 2003. "Poverty, affluence, and income inequality: neighborhood economic structure and its implications for health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(5), pages 843-860, September.
    14. Cohen, Deborah A. & Finch, Brian K. & Bower, Aimee & Sastry, Narayan, 2006. "Collective efficacy and obesity: The potential influence of social factors on health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 769-778, February.
    15. Ludwig, Jens & Duncan, Greg J. & Katz, Lawrence F. & Kessler, Ronald & Kling, Jeffrey R. & Gennetian, Lisa A. & Sanbonmatsu, Lisa, 2012. "Neighborhood Effects on the Long-Term Well-Being of Low-Income Adults," Scholarly Articles 11870359, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    16. Malmström, M. & Sundquist, J. & Johansson, S.-E., 1999. "Neighborhood environment and self-reported health status: A multilevel analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(8), pages 1181-1186.
    17. Ganz, M.L., 2000. "The relationship between external threats and smoking in Central Harlem," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(3), pages 367-371.
    18. Øystein Kravdal, 2006. "A simulation-based assessment of the bias produced when using averages from small DHS clusters as contextual variables in multilevel models," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20.
    19. Fulong Wu, 2000. "The Global and Local Dimensions of Place-making: Remaking Shanghai as a World City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(8), pages 1359-1377, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Phillips, Aryn Z. & Rodriguez, Hector P., 2020. "U.S. county “food swamp” severity and hospitalization rates among adults with diabetes: A nonlinear relationship," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stafford, Mai & Cummins, Steven & Ellaway, Anne & Sacker, Amanda & Wiggins, Richard D. & Macintyre, Sally, 2007. "Pathways to obesity: Identifying local, modifiable determinants of physical activity and diet," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1882-1897, November.
    2. O'Brien, Daniel T. & Farrell, Chelsea & Welsh, Brandon C., 2019. "Broken (windows) theory: A meta-analysis of the evidence for the pathways from neighborhood disorder to resident health outcomes and behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 272-292.
    3. Laurence, James, 2019. "Community disadvantage, inequalities in adolescent subjective well-being, and local social relations: The role of positive and negative social interactions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Gwilym Owen & Yu Chen & Timothy Birabi & Gwilym Pryce & Hui Song & Bifeng Wang, 2023. "Residential segregation of migrants: Disentangling the intersectional and multiscale segregation of migrants in Shijiazhuang, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(1), pages 166-182, January.
    5. Wight, Richard G. & Cummings, Janet R. & Miller-Martinez, Dana & Karlamangla, Arun S. & Seeman, Teresa E. & Aneshensel, Carol S., 2008. "A multilevel analysis of urban neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and health in late life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 862-872, February.
    6. Neatt, Kevin & Millward, Hugh & Spinney, Jamie, 2017. "Neighborhood walking densities: A multivariate analysis in Halifax, Canada," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 9-16.
    7. Winters, Meghan & Voss, Christine & Ashe, Maureen C. & Gutteridge, Kaitlyn & McKay, Heather & Sims-Gould, Joanie, 2015. "Where do they go and how do they get there? Older adults' travel behaviour in a highly walkable environment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 304-312.
    8. Grace Lordan & Debayan Pakrashi, 2015. "Do All Activities “Weigh” Equally? How Different Physical Activities Differ as Predictors of Weight," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(11), pages 2069-2086, November.
    9. Gerlinde Grasser & Delfien Dyck & Sylvia Titze & Willibald Stronegger, 2013. "Objectively measured walkability and active transport and weight-related outcomes in adults: a systematic review," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(4), pages 615-625, August.
    10. Margaret Weden & Christine Peterson & Jeremy Miles & Regina Shih, 2015. "Evaluating Linearly Interpolated Intercensal Estimates of Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics of U.S. Counties and Census Tracts 2001–2009," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(4), pages 541-559, August.
    11. Gong, Jie & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "The average and distributional effects of teenage adversity on long-term health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    12. Engström, Karin & Mattsson, Fredrik & Järleborg, Anders & Hallqvist, Johan, 2008. "Contextual social capital as a risk factor for poor self-rated health: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2268-2280, June.
    13. Sun, Bindong & Yan, Hong & Zhang, Tinglin, 2017. "Built environmental impacts on individual mode choice and BMI: Evidence from China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 11-21.
    14. Katie Crist & Tarik Benmarhnia & Steven Zamora & Jiue-An Yang & Dorothy D. Sears & Loki Natarajan & Lindsay Dillon & James F. Sallis & Marta M. Jankowska, 2021. "Device-Measured and Self-Reported Active Travel Associations with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in an Ethnically Diverse Sample of Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-16, April.
    15. Zick, Cathleen D. & Smith, Ken R. & Fan, Jessie X. & Brown, Barbara B. & Yamada, Ikuho & Kowaleski-Jones, Lori, 2009. "Running to the Store? The relationship between neighborhood environments and the risk of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1493-1500, November.
    16. Laura B. Nolan, 2016. "Rural–Urban Child Height for Age Trajectories and Their Heterogeneous Determinants in Four Developing Countries," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 35(5), pages 599-629, October.
    17. Wen, Ming & Hawkley, Louise C. & Cacioppo, John T., 2006. "Objective and perceived neighborhood environment, individual SES and psychosocial factors, and self-rated health: An analysis of older adults in Cook County, Illinois," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(10), pages 2575-2590, November.
    18. Cho, Gi-Hyoug & Rodríguez, Daniel A., 2014. "The influence of residential dissonance on physical activity and walking: evidence from the Montgomery County, MD, and Twin Cities, MN, areas," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 259-267.
    19. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.
    20. De Meester, Femke & Van Dyck, Delfien & De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse & Deforche, Benedicte & Cardon, Greet, 2013. "Do psychosocial factors moderate the association between neighborhood walkability and adolescents' physical activity?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-9.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:179:y:2017:i:c:p:172-181. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.