Elderly Women Rate Themselves Less Healthy than Men

According to the Blue Book of Chinese Society (2013), released by the Institute of Sociology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Social Sciences Academic Press (China) on December 18, 2012, elderly Chinese women tend to rate themselves as less healthy than men. 

The Blue Book of Chinese Society (2013) [china.com.cn]

Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology under the CASS Zhang Yi presented a report on senior citizen issues at the press conference held for the release.

Zhang said that the proportion of people who considered themselves healthy decreased with age. Statistics showed that the proportion of interviewees who considered themselves healthy dropped from 60.77 percent for those aged 60 to 64 to 48.36 percent for those aged 65 to 69, 35.24 percent for those aged 70 to 74, and 27.54 percent for those aged 75 to 79.

For all age groups, male senior citizens consistently showed a more optimistic attitude towards their health than females. For interviewees aged 60 to 64, approximately 64.7 percent of men considered themselves healthy in comparison to 56.76 percent of women.

The same trend holds true for the proportion of senior citizens who believe they can take care of themselves. Statistics showed that among interviewees aged 60 to 64, 0.86 percent of men believe they are unable to take care of themselves, in comparison to 0.9 percent of women. For those aged 75 to 79, the proportion was 4.01 percent for men and 4.62 for women.

(Source:china.com.cn/Translated by womenofchina.cn)