The influence of social and healthcare factors on the well-being of Chinese residents: evidence based on the random forest model

Well-being is intricately linked to economic development and social stability, prompting countries worldwide to prioritize enhancing their citizens’ quality of life. Social and healthcare determinants have long been acknowledged as significant contributors to overall well-being. It is essential to identify which specific factors exert a greater influence on residents’ well-being, to provide a reference for the decision-making of the government and relevant departments. Based on data from the 2021 Chinese General Social Survey, this study developed a random forest model to evaluate the significance of social and healthcare factors in forecasting the well-being of Chinese residents, and identified key variables to assess the model’s performance. The results indicated that 73.5% of Chinese residents are well-being. The top ten predictors identified in this study are: subjective social class (0.73), social trust (0.60), confidence with national healthcare (0.54), physical health (0.42), age (0.41), subjective socioeconomic status (0.40), long-term illness (0.36), access to treatment for serious illness (0.35), annual income (0.33), and recognition of healthcare equity (0.31). The accuracy of the well-being prediction model constructed using the 21 social and healthcare factors reached 82% on the test set, which is an acceptable performance. These findings demonstrate that social and healthcare factors are reliable in predicting the well-being of Chinese residents. The government and relevant departments should prioritize reducing social disparities and enhancing the healthcare system to improve public confidence and overall well-being.