On Status And Influencing Factors Of The "Difficulty And High Cost Of Getting Medical Treatment" For Infants In One County-level City Of Hunan

Objective: To understand the status and influencing factors of the “difficulty and highcost of getting medical treatment” for infants in one county-level city of Hunan. Thisarticle provides theoretical evidence for making related scientific and effective policies bythe government to solve this problem.Method: This article reviews the statistics data of the health department and healthadministration and the statistics document of children receiving medical treatment in cityhospitals. By the random sampling investigation, the families of infant patients in cityhospitals were assessed with the questionnaires. At the same time, home-visit was madewith questionnaires. The survey released400personal questionnaires, and389validquestionnaires were received. Entering the result of questionnaires to the SPSS13.0, thedata were analyzed by descriptive analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis.Result: By supply-side data, we found that health resources for children in this citywere in shortage and the allocation was irrational. The average medical cost for infants wassignificantly higher than the income growth during the last4years. We found that77.8%infants’ parents felt the difficulty of “high cost of getting medical treatment”,75.5%infants’ parents selected the public hospitals of the city when their infants got sick, and78.7%infants’ parents were willing to choose the cheap primary hospitals with goodtechniques. In addition,73.0%infants’ parents thought the pediatric medicine was limitedin this city, and69.2%infants’ parents thought that it was difficult to go to see a doctorwhen their infant got sick.27.7%infants have none medical insurance, and68.1%infants’parents were willing to choose Chinese medicine treatment.Conclusion: This county-level city exists the “difficulty and high cost of getting medical treatment” for infants phenomenon objectively and subjectively. The following arethe influencing factors of this phenomenon: high degree of attention on infants fromgrandparents, the priority of public hospitals when their infants got sick, little usefulness ofmedical insurance for infants, and unbalanced health resource allocation.