Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42502168›Full record

ArticleHealth economics2026

Rural-Urban Migration and the Health of Left-Behind Older Adults.

Tess Stafford, Xiaoyun Zhang, Katja Hanewald

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Health economics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Tess StaffordSchool of Economics, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Xiaoyun ZhangSchool of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Zhejiang, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6940-0481
Katja HanewaldSchool of Risk & Actuarial Studies, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9932-2840

Funding

ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR)
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We study the effect of rural-urban migration on the well-being of older adults who remain in rural communities in China, a country that is experiencing extensive rural-urban migration and rapid population aging. We exploit China's historic "sent-down youth" program which temporarily relocated millions of urban youth to rural villages and created lasting social ties between sending cities and receiving villages. These ties coupled with present-day variation in urban growth create exogenous variation in present-day rural-urban migration rates, which we use in an instrumental variables framework to identify the causal effects of migration on health. Results suggest that migration negatively affects the physical, cognitive, and emotional health of older adults that remain behind.

Indexed as

Health StatusPopulation DynamicsRural PopulationUrban PopulationAgedChinaFemaleHumansMale

Identifiers

PMID42502168
PMCPMC13532630

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.