Identifying determinants of spatial agglomeration of healthcare resources by using spatial econometric methods: a longitudinal study in China.

Background

Healthcare resources are necessary for individuals to maintain their health. The Chinese government has implemented policies to optimize the allocation of healthcare resources and achieve the goal of equality in healthcare for the Chinese people since the implementation of the new medical reform in 2009. Given that no study has investigated regional differences from the perspective of healthcare resource agglomeration, this study aimed to investigate China's healthcare agglomeration from 2009 to 2017 in China and identify its determinants to provide theoretical evidence for the government to develop and implement scientific and rational healthcare policies.

Methods

The study was conducted using 2009-2017 data to analyze health-resource agglomeration on institutions, beds, and workforce in China. An agglomeration index was applied to evaluate the degree of regional differences in healthcare resource allocation, and spatial econometric models were constructed to identify determinants of the spatial agglomeration of healthcare resources.

Results

From 2009 to 2017, all the agglomeration indexes of healthcare exhibited a downward trend except for the number of institutions in China. Population density (PD), government health expenditures (GHE), urban resident's disposable income (URDI), geographical location (GL), and urbanization level (UL) all had positive significant effects on the agglomeration of beds, whereas both

Conclusion

The agglomeration of healthcare resources was observed to remain at an ideal level in China from 2009 to 2017. According to the significant determinants, some corresponding targeted measures for the Chinese government and other developing countries should be fully developed to balance regional disparities in the agglomeration of healthcare resources across administrative regions.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024 Dong, Sun, Xi, Wang, Wang and Gao.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.