Objective To investigate the rural residents’ payment will for disease control and its influencing factors, so as to provide evidence for the government to make policy of combing disease control and New Rural Co-operative Medical system (NRCMS). Methods The self-designed questionnaire was adopted to investigate 1 117 rural residents from 156 villages, 44 towns, 19 counties (cities, districts) in Henan province. The frequency analysis and the multiple logistic regression analysis were conducted by using SPSS 11.5 software. Results On the basis of NRCMS payment, 68.3% of the rural residents were willing to pay extra for disease control, 62.3% of whom were willing to pay RMB 1.00 or more, and the average willing payment were RMB 3.01±7.66. The multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the people willing to pay extra were as follows: self-employed, graduates from a secondary technical school, dink family, and the respondents who believed NRCMS had relieved their medical financial burden. Conclusion In practicing the rural public health policy of combining disease control and NRCMS, it is suggested to ask rural residents to pay a little extra money on the basis of current NRCMS payment. The foundation of bringing this policy into force is to keep practicing NRCMS well so as to relieve more financial burdens for rural residents. During the implementation, low income families should be taken into consideration according to their occupation, educational level and family structure.
Objective To understand the situation of commonly-used drugs, medical device and their storages in rural households among model well-off township hospitals in eastern, central and western China, and to provide the basis for the guidance of reasonably using and scientifically storing drugs. Methods The methods of combining simple random sampling and cluster sampling were used to investigate and analyze the situation of commonly-used drugs, medical device and their storages in 162 households from three well-off township hospitals in Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Sichuan provinces, respectively. Results The storage rates of commonly-used drugs of rural households in well-off towns were cold medicine (72.2%), wound paste (51.9%), cooling oil (39.5%), essential balm (36.4%), antihypertensive (27.8%), iodine tincture (14.2%), anti-diabetic drugs (13.0%) and other drugs (17.3%). The storage rates of medical devices were thermometer (50.0%), cotton swab (47.5%), sphygmomanometer (9.3%), injector (1.2%) and other devices (22.2%). A total of 66% of respondent families stored drugs and medical devices in a fixed drawer. Only 3.1% families stored drugs and medical devices in the special portable medical kit. Conclusion Rural families have a higher rate of household drugs among model well-off township hospitals in eastern, central and western China, and most drugs are OTC drugs. The storage rates of medical devices are not high. Many rural family-owned medical devices are linked with special chronic diseases in the family. A lot of rural families place drugs and medical devices randomly. There are many security risks, and it may affect the rational utilization of drugs.
Objective To understand the demands on portable medicine kit of rural residents in well-off township hospitals, and to provide the basis for scientifically designing portable medicine kit for rural residents. Methods The methods of combining simple random sampling and cluster sampling were used to investigate and analyze the demands on portable medicine kit for 162 households from three well-off township hospitals in Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Sichuan province, respectively. Results The demand rate of 162 rural households on portable medicine kit was 75.3% (122/162). The main drugs that demanders expected in the portable medicine kit were cold medicine (86.1%), wound paste (82.0%), cooling oil (61.5%), essential balm (54.9%) and antihypertensive (34.4%); and the main medical devices that demanders expected were thermometer (82%), cotton swab (73%) and sphygmomanometer (32.8%). The sizes of portable medicine kit that demanders expected were 23.7±8.5 cm in length, 17.1±6.4 cm in width, and 14.1±6.5 cm in height. The main function characteristics of portable medicine kit that demanders expected were applicability (74.6%), safety (60.7%), light weight (68.0%), economics (60.7%), and waterproof (46.7%). A total of 72.1% of demanders expected the price of less than 15 yuan, and 91.8% expected kit made of hard materials as plastic as the first choice. Conclusion The demand rate of rural residents on portable medicine kit is higher in well-off township hospital. The design and production of portable medicine kit should fully meet the demands of rural residents. Only when sufficiant respect for the market demand is paid, can the promotion and application of portable kits will be ensured.
Objective To investigate the attitude and its influencing factors of Henan provincial rural residents towards the partial usage of funds from the New Rural Co-operative Medical System (NRCMS) for the disease control and prevention, in order to provide evidence for policy making. Methods In Henan province, 1 117 rural residents were randomly sampled with questionnaire from the 156 villages distributing in 44 townships of 19 counties (cities, districts). The frequency analyses, the multiple linear regression analysis and the one-way analysis of variance were conducted. Results Among all the respondents, only 3.4% of the rural residents absolutely disagreed (Zero agreement degree score), 34.4% fully agreed (10 agreement degree scores), and 90.6% had agreement degree scores equal to or more than five. The agreement degree was direct proportional to NRCMS satisfaction degree. The agreement degrees from residents who were relieved from medical financial burdens by NRCMS were higher than the others. 13.2% of rural residents believed that NRCMS did not alleviate their medical financial burden. For the men and women who believed that their village general practitioner was timely at vaccination, their agreement degree was higher than the others who considered vaccination time was late or common. The “timely group” was alone a subset. The “late group” and the “common group” were homogeneous subsets. The proportion of those who answered that the vaccination timeliness at late or common reached 40.6%. Conclusion The proposition to pay funds from the existing NRCMS for disease control and prevention is in line with the will of the majority of rural residents. The combination of disease control and prevention and NRCMS is a strategy in rural healthcare management. A bettering NRCMS and disease control and prevention are the basis of this policy in the future. More attention should be paid to the timeliness of the village general practitioners’ disease control work. It is necessary to perfect the NRCMS policy focusing on residents who hasn’t been relieved from medical financial burdens, so that more population will be benefited.
Objective To survey the relations between the rural residents’ occupational satisfaction, the health policies and demographic factors in Henan province and then to confirm the health policy order and its key target populations. Methods The questionnaires were distributed to 1 117 rural residents in 156 villages among 44 townships in 19 counties (cities, districts). The frequency analysis, multivariate linear regression analysis and multiple comparisons were conducted. Results The average value of rural residents’ occupational satisfaction scored 68.23, among which the complete dissatisfaction scored 0 accounting for 1.9%, the complete satisfaction scored 100 accounting for 9.0%, the one scoring no more than 50 accounted for 20.9%, and the one scoreing equal 80 or more than 80 accounted for 37.5%. By regarding the occupational satisfaction as the dependent variable, the independent variables stayed in the model were as follows in order according to their influence from heavy to little on the dependent variable: new rural cooperative medical system (NRCMS), occupation, village general practitioner’s work, family formation, age, disease prevention and control efforts. The occupational satisfaction was much higher when there were the following conditions: the higher satisfaction with the NRCMS, the more financial burden relieved by the NRCMS, and the higher satisfaction with village general practitioners’ work. The occupational satisfaction was the highest when villagers lived with their spouses, while it was the lowest when villagers lived with their spouses and children, as well as they lived with their parents, spouses and children. The peasants’ occupational satisfaction was the lowest. The occupational satisfaction had significantly negative correlation with cultural level, and had positive correlation with age. Conclusion The occupational satisfaction is an important indicator for assessing the level of social harmony, and is the basis for policy decision-making, implementation, and evaluation. The overall occupational satisfaction of the rural residents in Henan is lower, so the social harmoniy and stability should be alerted. The priority order of the existing rural health policy should be the NRCMS policy, village general practitioner work policy, and village disease prevention and control policy. When we are formulating and implementing the rural health policy, the key target populations should be considered among the people whose families comprise two or three generations, whose occupations are farmers, whose cultural level is lower, and whose ages are younger.
Objective To investigate the health status of residents in rural areas of China as well as their needs for health service, and to explore the effective way to improve the health status of rural residents so as to provide a basis for the training of community healthcare professionals. Methods Using the method of stratified cluster random sampling, we investigated 4190 rural residents from 1200 families, which were sampled from 13 provinces of China according to the geographical distribution. Results The 2-week prevalence rate was 27.9%. 32.7% of the patients saw a doctor, and 20.5% did not take any measures. Among those who did not take any measures, 78.4% thought their illness was mild and did not need any treatment; and the second reason for no treatment was lack of money (accounting for 36.5%). The prevalence rate of chronic diseases during the past half year was 24.9%, among which lumbar and leg pain was the most prevalent (accounting for 7.8%), followed by hypertension (accounting for 5.5%). The rates of visiting a doctor were 43.9% and 61.5% in township level and village level health institutions, respectively, during the past one year. 70.0% of the patients looked for treatment, 8.4% chose to ignore, and 20.8% took medicine by themselves. Among those who visited a doctor, 61.0% preferred hospitals near their houses, and 34.0% preferred those with lower expenses. More than half of the residents (accounting for 57.3%) did not have any physical examination during the past 3 years, and 28.3% did have a check-up but not regularly. Among the rural residents investigated, 64.2% obtained health care knowledge from television, newspapers, books and radio broadcasting, and 67.3% were desirous of regular physical examination. 56.3% and 33.1% of the rural residents considered the skill of the healthcare professionals in town-level institutions to be acceptable and satisfactory, respectively; and 61.7% and 24.6% evaluated the skill of those in village-level institutions to be acceptable and satisfactory, respectively. Conclusion The health status of rural residents is not optimistic, and their health behaviors need to be correctly guided, and the medical facilities and healthcare service quality of primary healthcare institutions should be improved. It is suggested that the government and medical colleges take the responsibility to train healthcare professionals for the primary health care in rural areas.
ObjectiveTo investigate the prevalence and risk factors for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Dayi County of Chengdu. MethodsRandomly cluster sampled residents between 40 and 70 years of age from two natural villages in the rural communities from February to December, 2010 were included in our study. We used questionnaire survey, physical examination and portable spirometry to collect data. Post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity of less than 70% was defined as the diagnostic criterion of COPD. Univariate analysis and logistic regression mode were used to define the risk factors. ResultsA total of 1 017 residents were enrolled in this survey, and 782 participants were valid for analysis, with a valid response rate of 76.89%. There were 330 males and 452 females, with an average age of (51.97±8.17) years old. The overall prevalence of COPD was 10.61%. After population standardization, the prevalence rate was 12.37%, and the overall prevalence increased with increment of age. The prevalence in male (13.33%) was higher than that in female (8.62%) with significant difference (P<0.01) and the prevalence increased with age. Univariate analysis showed that sex, age, education level, smoking and amount of smoking (pack-years) were the risk factors for COPD with significant difference. Logistic regression analysis showed that age, amount of smoking (pack-years) were the main risk factors for COPD. ConclusionCOPD is highly prevalent in Dayi County of Chengdu and it is important to prevent COPD by controlling smoking and improving education level.