Older parents benefit more in health outcome from daughtersâ•Ž than sonsâ•Ž care in China

Objectives: To examine whether older parents in China would benefit more from daughters’ care than from sons’ care. Methods: Analysis of the unique datasets of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey conducted in 2002, 2005 and 2008-2009 in 22 provinces. Results: As compared to having son(s), having daughter(s) is significantly more beneficial at older ages in China, with regards to maintaining higher cognitive capacity and reducing mortality risk. Such daughteradvantages are more profound among the oldest-old aged 80+ as compared to the young-old aged 65-79, and surprisingly more profound in rural areas as compared to urban areas, even though son-preference is much more common among rural residents. Discussion: We describe how educational campaigns aimed at informing the public about the benefits of daughter(s) for older parents’ health outcome could help promote gender equality and reduce traditional son-preference, especially in rural China. 1 The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Duke University, Peking University, the University of Rhode Island, the United Nations and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. Dr. Danan Gu’s work was mainly completed when he was at Duke University. He now works at the United Nations Population Division.