Table 2

Characteristics of the study participants in rural areas

Variable	2008			2013			2018
Variable	Obs	Mean/ percentage	SD	Obs	Mean/ percentage	SD	Obs	Mean/ percentage	SD
Female	2722	49.95%		2656	49.91%		2946	49.91%
Age	5449	40.98	20.44	5322	42.89	21.50	5903	43.33	22.00
0–14 years	637	6.85	4.27	733	5.75	4.02	964	6.88	4.10
14–60 years	3883	39.50	12.86	3389	41.52	12.40	3416	42.22	11.93
60+ years	929	70.60	7.80	1200	69.43	7.27	1523	68.89	7.05
No of household members	1800	3.03	1.27	1800	2.96	1.38	1800	3.28	1.56
Equivalent household expenditure (RMB)*	1800	8394.83	5591.66	1800	15 047.99	10 778.83	1800	18 018.70	18 265.18
First quintile	360	3293.27	1020.40	360	4903.31	1731.12		6065.40	1592.97
Second quintile	360	5638.88	526.55	360	9394.71	1066.94		10 395.08	1150.26
Third quintile	360	7329.28	509.88	361	12 938.77	1120.44		14 214.81	1294.99
Fourth quintile	360	9466.41	829.23	359	17 493.37	1682.92		19 334.17	1811.64
Fifth quintile	360	16 246.29	7522.89	360	30 522.48	13 717.24		39 906.29	30 950.13
Health insurance
None	436	8.00%		108	2.03%		87	1.47%
Any	5013	92.00%		5214	97.97%		5816	98.53%

*All year 2008’s and 2013’s nominal prices have been adjusted to real prices in year 2018 by using China’s Consumer Price Index.
RMB, renminbi.;