Exploring The Health Equity Among The Urban Residents In Sichuan Province

Objectives: To explore the health equity and the influencing factors leading to inequity among the urban residents in Sichuan province. To provide theory evidences for the government policy and method references to the similar researches.Methods: The prevalence of chronic diseases is selected as the index reflecting the health condition. Based upon the urban data of Sichuan province of the enlarged Third National Health Service Survey in the west of China, Gini coefficient and other statistical methods are used to evaluate the health equity. The two-level logit model is used to discuss the influencing factors leading to the inequity.Results: Gini coefficient among patients with chronic diseases is 0.2890, and it is 0.2735 among the people who are not. The influencing factors of chronic diseases are economic condition, sex, age, marriage status and occupation. If people live in the poor family, the probability is 1.90 times as much as others who don't. The probability of chronic diseases for the female is 1.20 times as much as that for the male. For the people over 64 years old, the probability is 2.54 times than that for the people from 15 to 64 years old. Compared with the unmarried, the probability of chronic diseases in the married is 5.04 times, and in the divorced or the bereft of one's spouse the probability is 6.46 times. The employed people's probability of chronic diseases is 2.33 times as much as the students. Contrasted to the employed men, the probability in the retired is 4.25 times, and that in the unemployed people is 2.08 times.Conclusions: The health inequity does occur in the urban people in Sichuan province. It should be helpful to improve the health status and reduce the health inequity through enhancing the health attention and health intervention among the poor, the female, the elder, the divorced and the bereft, the retired and the unemployed.