Urban-Rural Housing Disparities and Inequality of Opportunity in Elderly Health

Housing conditions have a significant impact on human health. For a long time, the dual urban-rural system of China has led to significant differences in housing between urban and rural areas, and the cumulative impact of housing environment can result in inequality of opportunity in health among the elderly. Based on Roemer's equal opportunity theory and using data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), it was found that the average gap in health opportunities between rural and urban elderly populations is 2.359, accounting for approximately 3.5% of the average health level of rural elderly. The degree of inequality of opportunity in health between urban and rural elderly groups is divided by the Hu line, with higher levels of inequality in the western and northern region. Using the Shapley value method, the specific impact of housing on inequality of opportunity in health was quantified from four dimensions: housing asset value, housing property stability, housing comfort, and housing facility convenience. Their overall contribution was as high as 87%. Based on the above research results, we propose improvement paths from the housing sector: coordinating the promotion of urban and rural environmental transformation for elderly, exploring the new security model “housing(or land)-based eldercare” for rural elderly, and establishing the integration of urban and rural housing security system.