Explaining the declining utilization of village clinics in rural China over time: A decomposition approach.

ABSTRACT: With a goal of improving health system quality and efficiency, reforms of China's health system over the past decade have sought to strengthen primary healthcare in lower-level clinics and health centers. Despite these wide-ranging reforms and initiatives, population-based studies have documented dramatic declines in patients' use of primary care facilities during this period. In this paper, we explore the determinants of this trend in China's rural areas using detailed longitudinal data following a nationally-representative sample of rural households and village clinics from 2011 to 2018. We estimate that between 2011 and 2018, the probability that individuals sought care at village clinics when ill dropped by 44%. At the same time, the utilization of outpatient services in county hospita

SUBMITTER: Chen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10266832 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature