Background Researchers interested in the effects of health on various life outcomes often use self-reported health and disease as an indicator of true, underlying health status. However, the validity of reporting is questionable as it relies on the awareness, recall bias and social desirability. Accordingly, biomedical test is generally regarded as a more precise indication of the disease. Methods Using data from the third wave of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we selected individuals aged 40–85 years old who participated in both health interview survey and biomedical test. Sensitivity, specificity, false negative reporting and false positive reporting were used as measurements of (dis) agreement or (in) validity, and binary and multinomial logistic regression were used to estimate under-report or over-report of hypertension and diabetes. Results Self-reported hypertension and diabetes showed low sensitivity (73.24 and 49.21%, respectively) but high specificity (93.61 and 98.05%, respectively). False positive reporting of hypertension and diabetes were 3.97 and 1.67%, while false negative reports were extremely high at 10.14 and 7.38%. Educational attainment, hukou, age and gender affected both group-specific error and overall error with some differences in their magnitude and directions. Conclusion Self-reported conditions underestimate the disease burden of hypertension and diabetes in China. Adding objective measurements into social survey could improve data accuracy and allow better understanding of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to provide basic health education and physical examination to citizens, and promote the use of healthcare to lower the incidence and unawareness of disease in China.

Objectives To investigate whether unequal exposure to health-related expertise of intra-family is the root of health inequality in China, and to explore the underlying mechanisms through which health-related expertise shapes health outcome. Methods In a representative sample of Chinese adults ages over 18 from the 2017 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) (n = 3,047 respondents), we use multiple linear regression model and the two-stage least-squares model to analyze the correlation between health-related expertise of intra-family and self-rated health. Results The presence of a health professional (HP) in the family is associated with better self-rated health (SRH), and the effect is more important in rural areas than urban areas. An increased chance of exercising appears to explain a part of the association between HP and SRH. Discussions Health professionals doing for their family members would have the potential to make a substantial dent in population health and reduce health inequality. Future work will need to understand the patterns of intra-family expertise in health (and other) domains, and the potential replicability of this transmission by public policies.

This article investigates college graduates in Beijing, China, and asks, First: Whether college graduates without local hukou are prone to educational mismatch? Second: What role does the hukou system play in the educational mismatch? And third: Whether college graduates without local hukou are willing to lower their wages in order to get a hukou? I use the Beijing College Students Panel Survey (BCSPS), and multinomial logit models and the linear regression analyses are conducted. I find that college graduates with (without) local hukou through job are more likely to be vertical and full mismatch than locals, and those who obtain a hukou through job have a higher full mismatch. After considering the educational mismatch, there is no significant difference in monthly wages between college graduates (not) having a hukou by work and locals.

A large literature has examined early-life insult and later-life health outcomes. However, whether early-life exposure might persist into the outcomes of future generations remains unclear. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study examines the intergenerational effects of early-life health shocks during the great famine in China, distinguishes the intergenerational effects of in utero and early-life famine exposure, and estimates whether there is a sex-specific transgenerational response. Difference-in-difference results show that first-generation male in utero famine exposure (1959–1961) is associated with a series of health and economic disadvantages in the second generation, compared with the unexposed post-famine-born cohort (1964–1965) in China. The effect persists in the third generation but attenuates, and there is no same-sex transgenerational response. These findings may suggest a novel source of multigenerational persistence in health and economic poverty and may point to a need to consider evidence of transgenerational mechanisms.