Assessing health lifestyles in contemporary China: Patterns, transitions, and socioeconomic antecedents

Health lifestyles in China reflect complex interplays of various structural forces, yielding intricate and evolving patterns. Leveraging data from the 2004-2015 China Health and Nutrition Survey (N = 9,986), this study discerns latent health lifestyles, tracks transitional dynamics, and probes socioeconomic disparities in these shifts. Three distinct lifestyle categories emerge: 'high risk', 'overall healthy but inactive', and 'modernized and active'. Notably, the prevalent trend favours the 'overall healthy but inactive' lifestyle, steadily expanding over time, followed by the 'high-risk' group. Conversely, the 'modernized and active' lifestyle, while being the least common, exhibits a modest decline. Individuals engaged in primary industries are more likely to sustain an overall healthy but inactive lifestyle. Socioeconomic advantages, particularly in education and income, were linked to maintaining or transitioning into a modernised and active lifestyle, while lower income and unemployment were more prone to maintaining high-risk behaviours. These findings illuminate the intricate dynamics of health lifestyles in China's rapidly evolving landscape, highlighting socioeconomic influences on lifestyle transitions.