Does Tea Drinking Promote Health of Older Adults: Evidence from the China Health and Nutrition Survey

Objective: This study selects the health indicators of older adults to analyze the impact of tea drinking on health. Design: This is a panel data. Setting: This study uses data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), which covers nine provinces and ten waves, between 1997 and 2015. Participants: a total of 706 old adults are consistently surveyed in six surveys on issues such as health and nutrition. Measurements: Health of old adults is assessed by self-reported health (SRH), tea drinking is 0-1 dummy variable, and also analyze with the frequency of tea drinking. This study uses ordered probit model to analyze the influence of tea drinking on SRH. Results: Findings reveal a significant negative correlation between tea drinking and SRH of older adults. It is shows that the significant positive correlation exists between the tea drinking frequency and SRH, but the quadratic term of tea frequency shows the significant negative correlation. It means drinking tea benefits older adults in terms of improved health, but excessive consumption of tea is not healthy for them. The heterogeneity analyses reveal that there are no significant geographic, tea-drinking pattern or gender differences in the conclusion that tea drinking is good for older adults’ health. Conclusion: In this study, we find correlation between tea drinking and SRH of older adults, and tea drinking is beneficial toward the improvement of SRH, but drinking tea in excess is not good for older adults’ health.