Abstract
Age reporting among respondents in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey is examined, using the first round of data collected in 1998. The sample design limits the use of traditional methods for assessing the accuracy of age reporting, and innovative methods are adopted. Only the sample aged 100+ is representative of the population at that age. The age structure of centenarians is compared with populations with good age reporting, demonstrating age exaggeration. At ages 80+, constructed estimates of age at childbearing show systematic effects consistent with age exaggeration, particularly in Guangxi and among ethnic minorities. Increasing age exaggeration with age is present in these data, which is at least partly the result of the age structure. These findings have implications for substantive analyses, and further examination of the quality of these data is needed.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
- Age exaggeration
- Age heaping
- Age misreporting
- Age reporting
- Age validation
- Centenarian
- China
- Cluster sample
- Data quality
- Digit preference
- England and Wales
- Ethnic minorities
- Guangxi
- Han majority
- Inaccuracy
- Japan
- Jiangsu
- Large sample size
- Longevity
- Mean age at childbearing
- Myers Index
- Non-response
- Oldest-old
- One Per Thousand Fertility Survey
- Proportion of centenarians
- Re-assessment
- Regional variation
- Sample design
- Shanghai
- Sweden
- Whipple’s Index
- Yao
- Zhuang
References
Alter, G., M. Dribe, and F. van Poppe (2004), Childbearing history and post-reproductive mortality: A comparative analysis of three populations in nineteenth century Europe. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association, Chicago (USA), 18–21 November 2004.
Coale, A. and E.E Kisker (1986), Mortality crossovers: Reality or bad data? Population Studies 40 (3), pp. 389–401.
Coale, A. and S. Li (1991), The effect of age misreporting in China on the calculation of mortality rates at very high ages. Demography 28 (2), pp. 293–301
Doblhammer, G. (2000), Reproductive history and mortality later in life: A comparative study of England and Wales and Austria. Population Studies 54 (2), pp. 169–176
Dribe, M. (2004), Long-term effects of childbearing on mortality: Evidence from pre-industrial Sweden. Population Studies 58 (3), pp. 297–310
Gu, D. and Y. Zeng, (2004), Data quality assessment of the CLHLS 1998, 2000, and 2002 waves. In: Y. Zeng, Y. Liu, C. Zhang, and Z. Xiao (eds.) Analyses of the determinants of healthy longevity. Beijing: Peking University Press, pp. 3–22 (in Chinese).
Jeune, B. (1995), In search of the first centenarians. In: B. Jeune and J. Vaupel (eds.), Exceptional longevity: From prehistory to the present, Odense: Odense University Press, pp. 11–24
Kannisto, V (1994), Development of oldest-old mortality, 1950–1990: Evidence from 28 developed countries. Odense: Odense University Press.
Müller, H.-G., J.-M. Chiou, J.R. Carey, and J.-L. Wang (2002), Fertility and life span: Late children enhance female longevity. The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 57 (5), pp. B202–B206
Perls, T.T., L. Alpert, and R.C. Fretts (1997), Middle-aged mothers live longer. Nature 389, pp. 133
Research Group of Healthy Longevity in China (RGHLC) (2000), Data collections of the healthy longevity survey in China 1998. Beijing: Peking University Press.
Rosenwaike, I. and L.F. Stone (2003), Verification of the ages of supercentenarians in the United States: Results of a matching study. Demography 40 (4), pp. 727–739
Smith, K.R., G.P. Mineau, L.L. Bean (2002), Fertility and post-reproductive longevity. Social Biology 49 (3–4), pp. 185–205
Wang, Z., Y. Zeng, B. Jeune, and J.W. Vaupel (1998), Age validation of Han Chinese centenarians. Genus LIV (1–2), pp. 123–141
Xu, Q. (2001), Evaluation of age-reporting among the elderly. Marketing and Population Analysis 3, pp. 1–12 (in Chinese)
Zeng, Y. and J.W. Vaupel (2004), Association of late childbearing with healthy longevity among the oldest-old in China. Population Studies 58 (1), pp. 37–53
Zeng, Y., J.W. Vaupel, Z. Xiao, C, Zhang, and Y. Liu (2001), The healthy longevity survey and the active life expectancy of the oldest old in China. Population: An English Selection 13 (1), pp. 95–116
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Booth, H., Zhao, Z. (2008). Age Reporting in the CLHLS: A Re-assessment. In: Yi, Z., Poston, D.L., Vlosky, D.A., Gu, D. (eds) Healthy Longevity in China. The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6752-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6752-5_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6751-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6752-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)