Multilevel Socioeconomic Differentials in Allostatic Load in Chinese Adults

Hongwei Xu, University of Michigan

Socioeconomic inequalities in health have been well documented, but the underlying mechanism that relates socioeconomic status (SES) to specific health outcomes remains unclear. Capitalizing on the biomarker data from the 2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), we construct a health indicator, known as the allostatic load (AL), of multiple biological parameters of cardiovascular, metabolic, inflammation, and urinary systems to examine the extent to which SES gets “under the skin” to affect individuals’ health among adult Chinese population. We seek to capture the effects of SES at multiple levels, ranging from individual to household, to community. Our exploratory bivariate analysis suggests a clear aging trend, a residential gap in favor of rural residents as opposed to their urban peers, and a negative education gradient in AL score.