1.3.2 Objectives of Study

This study aims to investigate the structural relationships between SES, social interaction, healthy lifestyle, health status and mortality among community-dwelling elderly in Japan and China, as well as whether these associations differ in subgroups, for example, country, age or gender. More specifically, there are three objectives：

（1）to examine the relation between SES and health of elderly Japanese and Chinese people；

（2）to inquire the mediating role of social interaction on the association between SES and health status among elderly people in both Japan and China；

（3）to investigate the SES-health mechanism through personal behaviors, such as social interaction and healthy lifestyle, and how this mechanism varies by age and gender among elderly Japanese community-dwellers.