Decomposing differences in the chronic disease condition between rural and urban older adults in China: a cross-sectional analysis

Background With the increasing in aging in China, there has been an increase in older adults suffering from chronic diseases. However, little is known about the differences in chronic disease conditions between rural and urban older adults. The objective of this study is to identify chronic disease conditions and investigate the factors that cause differences in chronic disease conditions between urban and rural older adults. Methods The data are from the fourth wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The coarsened exact matching (CEM) method was used to reduce the biases for a comparative study. After the CEM method, this study included 5,927 participants aged 60 and above. Chronic disease condition was used as the indicator to measure the health of older adults. Specifically, Fairlie's decomposition analysis was carried out to discover the differences in chronic disease conditions between urban and rural older adults. Results The study showed that the proportion of those suffering from chronic diseases was significantly higher among urban older adults (51.26%) than rural older adults (46.56%). In those suffering from chronic diseases, there were significant differences in gender, education level, minorities, religiosities, duration of sleep, drinking alcohol, social activity, insurance, and socioeconomic status between rural and urban older adults, while in those not suffering from chronic diseases, there were significant differences in age, education level, marital status, drinking alcohol, social activity, insurance, region, and socioeconomic status between rural and urban older adults. For rural older adults, those who were widowers [Odds ratios (OR): 1.267], who drink alcohol (OR: 1.421), and having government medical insurance (OR: 4.869) had higher odds of having chronic diseases. However, those who were in high school and above (OR: 0.802), reporting a duration of sleep of 4–8 h (OR: 0.745) or above 8 h (OR: 0.649), having social activity (OR: 0.778), and having the most affluent socioeconomic status (OR: 0.778) had lower odds of having chronic diseases. As for urban older adults, those who were aged 65–74 years (OR: 1.246) and had government medical insurance (OR: 2.362) had higher odds of having chronic diseases. Fairlie's decomposition analysis indicated that 23.57% of the differences in chronic diseases conditions could be traced to duration of sleep, drinking alcohol, social activity, and region. Conclusion This study illustrated that the proportion of chronic diseases was higher among urban older adults than rural older adults. Considering duration of sleep, drinking alcohol, region, social activity, and region, the study demonstrated health differences between urban and rural older adults and provided evidence for policy-making to narrow the health gap between urban and rural areas.