Healthy Longevity in China : Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Psychological Dimensions

China has the largest number of elderly persons worldwide. For this book, scholars use the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey datasets to answer numerous questions about aging so as to find clues to how we can all live longer, healthier lives.

Key research in the world’s largest aging population – in China – has fed into this important new work, which aims to answer questions critical to older people worldwide. These include: is the period of disability compressing or expanding with increasing life expectancy and what factors are associated with these trends in the recent decades?And is it possible to realize morbidity compression with a prolongation of the life span in the future? Essential reading for gerontologists. China is aging at an extraordinary speed and has the largest quantity of elderly persons in the world. Scholars here have utilized this unprecedented human living experience as well as the unique Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) datasets to come up with this volume. The first section of the book presents the CLHLS project’s study design, sample distribution, contents of data collected, and assessments of age reporting and data quality. The remaining chapters are grouped into sections dealing with the demographic, social, economic, familial and psychological dimensions of healthy longevity. Research findings reported in this book are instrumental in the ultimate realization of the long-term dream of healthy longevity, that is, not only living longer, but living a healthier life.