Analysis Of Regional Balance In Elderly Health Status And Health Services Utilization And Its Change In China

Objectives Make full use of the authoritative data about family health survey, whichreleased by the state health department, to explore the potential information, toanalyze regional differences of the old health status and health service utilization inChina, and to analyze and find out potential field about regional balance of the oldhealth status and health service utilization from a macro level, to providecountermeasures for health policy-making departments to solve the old healthproblems and regional differences of health services utilization, as well as to provide abasis for decision making to reasonably configure limited health resources andimprove the old health status of different regions.Methods Choose five indicators such as perceived sickness(PS) in the past two weeks,chronic incidence(CI), out-patient(OSU) and non-out-patient(NOSU) service using inthe past two weeks, inpatient services using(ISU) in the past year of the old healthstatus and health service utilization in China from National Health Services Survey in1993,1998,2003and2008. Statistical description, the index of difference (ID) anddistribution map were used in analyzing regional disparities and trends, anddescribing the geographic distribution.Results Statistical description, the index of difference and distribution map all showedthat, there exist regional disparities of the old health status and health serviceutilization:①The old health status was found to be better in urban than in rural areasexcept chronic incidence in1998. By geographic regions, PS was higher in the North,Northeast, East and Central and South China, and CI was higher in the North and Northeast in2008.②IDs of perceived sickness in the past two weeks were smaller in theCentral and South China than in other regions; IDs of chronic incidence were smallerin urban than in rural areas, as well as in the North than in other regions except in1993;the difference degree of chronic incidence was decreasing among each regions.。③OSU was generally higher in the urban than in rural areas; NOSU slightlydeclined among different regions in2008National Health Services Survey comparingof that in1993; ISU was significantly higher in urban than in rural areas, and had anincreasing trend of both urban and rural areas; ISU was the highest in the Northwest.④IDs of out-patient service using in the past two weeks were lager in ruralthan in urban areas except that in the first survey, the disparities were larger amongdifferent types of rural areas than among different types of urban areas; IDs ofinpatient services using in the past year were larger in rural than in urban areas in allthe four surveys; the internal disparities of non-out-patient service using in the pasttwo weeks were generally larger in the Central and South China; there exist adecreasing trend in disparities of ISU among different regions.Conclusions In China, there exist substantial regional disparities in the old peoplehealth status and health services utilization. In order to improve efficiency of the oldhealth status and health services utilization, and to promote the health fairness, thegovernment needs to pay more attention to the old health needs as well as to improvethe economic development in terms of increasing financial investment in the healthindustry, implementing the regional health planning, reasonably configuring healthresources, improving the social health insurance system, developing social rescue, andcarrying out health education.