New Findings in Environmental Research and Public Health Described from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Changes in Perceived Accessibility to Healthcare from the Elderly between 2005 and 2014 in China: An Oaxaca-Blinder …)

Daily China News

2019 NOV 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Daily China News -- Current study results on Environmental Health - Environmental Research and Public Health have been published. According to news reporting originating from Wuhan, People’s Republic of China, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Elderly people are characterized with high needs for healthcare, accompanied by high barriers in access to healthcare. This study aimed to identify temporal changes in access to healthcare and determinants of such changes from the elderly in China, over the period between 2005 and 2014.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, “Two waves (2005 and 2014) of data were extracted from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), measuring changes in perceived accessibility to healthcare when needed by the elderly (65 years). The effects of the explanatory variables (need, predisposing and enabling factors) on the changes were divided into two components using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method: (1) the endowment portion as a result of distribution differences of the explanatory variables and (2) the coefficient portion as a result of differential responses of the dependent variable to the explanatory variables. Perceived accessibility to healthcare from the elderly increased from 89.6% in 2005 to 96.7% in 2014. The coefficient portion (82%) contributed more to the change than the endowment portion (63%) after adjustments for a negative interaction effect (-45%) between the two. Lower perceived accessibility was associated with older age, lower income, lower affordability of daily expenses and lower insurance coverage. But the coefficient effects suggested that their impacts on perceived accessibility to healthcare declined over time. By contrast, the impacts of gender and out-of-pocket payment ratio for medical care on perceived accessibility to healthcare increased over time. Perceived accessibility to healthcare from the elderly improved between 2005 and 2014. Gender gaps are closing.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “But the increased effect of out-of-pocket medical payments on perceived accessibility to healthcare deserves further investigation and policy interventions.”

For more information on this research see: Changes in Perceived Accessibility to Healthcare from the Elderly between 2005 and 2014 in China: An Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019;16(20):3824.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting T. Zhang, Dept. of Health Management, School of Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 43003, People’s Republic of China. Additional authors for this research include J. Liu and C. Liu.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203824. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.