Exploring the intergenerational persistence of health behaviour: an empirical study of smoking from China

BACKGROUND: It is of significance to look into the intergenerational transmission of risk behaviour to explain the disparity of health. Our paper contributes to the literature by providing evidence in the context of China, focusing on smoking behaviour. METHODS: This paper studies the intergenerational transmission of smoking in the context of China using a nationally representative dataset – the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). The two-part model, the Tobit model, and the fixed effects model are utilized for the empirical analysis, respectively. RESULTS: We found a strong intergenerational persistence of health behaviour. That is, parents’ smoking behaviour is positively correlated with their children’s smoking initiation. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides evidence of the intergenerational persistence of health behaviour in the case of smoking, in the world’s most populous country. This has policy implications for the issue of intergenerational mobility and health education, as well as for tobacco control in China.