TY - JOUR
T1 - Longitudinal study of rural health workforce in five counties in China
T2 - Research design and baseline description
AU - Xu, Huiwen
AU - Zhang, Weijun
AU - Zhang, Xiulan
AU - Qu, Zhiyong
AU - Wang, Xiaohua
AU - Sa, Zhihong
AU - Li, Yafang
AU - Zhao, Shuliang
AU - Qi, Xuan
AU - Tian, Donghua
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the ‘985’ platform project of Beijing Normal University, the Study on the Current Status and Developmental Trend of Village Doctors funded by the Ministry of Health of China and the Study on the Key Technologies of Rural Primary Healthcare funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Number: 2012BAJ18B00). We give many thanks to the employees of the health bureaus of the surveyed counties (Changshu, Liyang, Mianzhu, Yongchuan, and Jingning) for their meaningful work during the project. Thanks also to all the project participants.
PY - 2013/5/4
Y1 - 2013/5/4
N2 - Background: The village doctors have served rural residents for many decades in China, and their role in rural health system has been highly praised in the world; unfortunately, less attention has been paid to the health workforce during the ambitious healthcare reform in recent years. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore the current situation and track the future evolution of the rural healthcare workforce.Methods: The self-administered structured Village Clinic Questionnaire and Village Doctor Questionnaire, which were modified from the official questionnaires of the Ministry of Health, were constructed after three focus groups, in-depth interviews in Hebei Province, and a pilot survey in Sichuan Province. Using a stratified multistage cluster sampling process, we gathered baseline data for a longitudinal survey of village doctors, village clinics from Changshu County, Liyang County, Yongchuan District, Mianzhu County, and Jingning County in China in 2011. Well-trained interviewers and strict procedures were employed to ensure the quality of this survey. Descriptive and correlation analyses were performed with Stata 12.0.Results: After four months of surveying, 1,982 Village Doctor Questionnaires were collected, and the response rate was 88.1%. There were 1,507 (76.0%) male and 475 (24.0%) female doctors, with an average age of 51.3 years. The majority of village doctors (58.5%) practiced both western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and 91.2% of the doctors received their education below college level. Their practice methods were not correlated with education level (P = 0.43), but closely related to the way they obtained their highest degree (that is, prior to starting work or as on-the-job training) (P < 0.01). The mean income of the village doctors was 1,817 (95% CI 1,733 to 1,900) RMB per month in 2011; only 757 (41.3%) doctors had pensions, and the self-reported expected pension was 1,965 RMB per month.Conclusions: Village doctors in rural China are facing critical challenges, including aging, gender imbalance, low education, and a lack of social protection. This study may be beneficial for making better policies for the development of the health workforce and China's healthcare reform.
AB - Background: The village doctors have served rural residents for many decades in China, and their role in rural health system has been highly praised in the world; unfortunately, less attention has been paid to the health workforce during the ambitious healthcare reform in recent years. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore the current situation and track the future evolution of the rural healthcare workforce.Methods: The self-administered structured Village Clinic Questionnaire and Village Doctor Questionnaire, which were modified from the official questionnaires of the Ministry of Health, were constructed after three focus groups, in-depth interviews in Hebei Province, and a pilot survey in Sichuan Province. Using a stratified multistage cluster sampling process, we gathered baseline data for a longitudinal survey of village doctors, village clinics from Changshu County, Liyang County, Yongchuan District, Mianzhu County, and Jingning County in China in 2011. Well-trained interviewers and strict procedures were employed to ensure the quality of this survey. Descriptive and correlation analyses were performed with Stata 12.0.Results: After four months of surveying, 1,982 Village Doctor Questionnaires were collected, and the response rate was 88.1%. There were 1,507 (76.0%) male and 475 (24.0%) female doctors, with an average age of 51.3 years. The majority of village doctors (58.5%) practiced both western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and 91.2% of the doctors received their education below college level. Their practice methods were not correlated with education level (P = 0.43), but closely related to the way they obtained their highest degree (that is, prior to starting work or as on-the-job training) (P < 0.01). The mean income of the village doctors was 1,817 (95% CI 1,733 to 1,900) RMB per month in 2011; only 757 (41.3%) doctors had pensions, and the self-reported expected pension was 1,965 RMB per month.Conclusions: Village doctors in rural China are facing critical challenges, including aging, gender imbalance, low education, and a lack of social protection. This study may be beneficial for making better policies for the development of the health workforce and China's healthcare reform.
KW - Barefoot doctors
KW - China
KW - Human resources for health
KW - Rural health workforce
KW - Village doctors
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U2 - 10.1186/1478-4491-11-17
DO - 10.1186/1478-4491-11-17
M3 - Article
C2 - 23642224
AN - SCOPUS:84876964056
SN - 1478-4491
VL - 11
JO - Human Resources for Health
JF - Human Resources for Health
IS - 1
M1 - 17
ER -