Death rates among the elite are rising

China Study: City Dwellers in Poor Health By ELAINE KURTENBACH

Up to 75 percent of all urban Chinese suffer from ill health, and life expectancies are declining for skilled and educated workers as modern lifestyles exact a deadly toll, according to a study by the Chinese Red Cross.

The survey of 16 Chinese cities with more than 1 million people found that 75 percent of Beijing residents were in poor health, along with 73 percent of those in Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou, the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily reported Monday.

The findings illustrate a darker side of China's economic success story: deteriorating public health and a decline in well-being for many Chinese, even in the country's richest cities.

The Red Cross study defined poor health or "sub health" as illness causing reduced levels of energy and fitness but with no specific diagnosis of a disease...

The Chinese Academy of Sciences reports that the average life span of an educated person is 58, more than 10 years lower than the national average of 72 years.

A separate study found that among the 380,000 information technology professionals working in Zhongguancun, Beijing's equivalent of Silicon Valley, the average life expectancy was only 53 years - five years lower than a decade ago, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday...

Urban Chinese are getting gaining weight as they switch from diets heavy in vegetables and staple grains to much higher consumption of fats, meats and sugar. Physical labor has given way to more sedentary work, and stress levels are rising as workers lose cradle-to-grave employment and struggle to make ends meet in a competitive job market.

Meanwhile, China's industrial boom and soaring number of vehicles have spoiled water and air to the point where its cities are among the worst polluted in the world, and respiratory diseases are the No. 1 cause of early death.

Although Shanghai has claimed progress in cleaning up its notoriously noxious Suzhou Creek, upstream canals remain heavily polluted. Most waterways are unsafe for drinking, and some are not fit even for agricultural use.

The population of cities is also aging quickly, raising the percentage of people more likely to be suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart problems...

The government once touted the country's broad provision of basic services, such as medical care and education, as obvious benefits of Communist Party rule. But for many, those services have been dismantled.

Farm families in the countryside can no longer count on "barefoot
doctors" for basic health services. And although city dwellers have
access to the country's best medical facilities, the lack of a
comprehensive health insurance system means that many cannot afford
medical care.

I'm skeptical that rural people are quite as healthy as this article suggests. With virtually no insurance, are they really that much healthier than urbanites? Still, it's ironic that the elite is so unhealthy.