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Equity analysis of Chinese physician allocation based on Gini coefficient and Theil index
Huimin Yu1, Shuangyan Yu2, Da He3
1School of Economics and Management, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, 330000, Jiangxi, China.
Insights
Physician distribution in China is fair by population but highly unequal by service area. Addressing regional disparities in medical resources is crucial for equitable access to quality healthcare for all citizens.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Health Services Research
- Healthcare Management
Background:
- Unequal medical physician resource allocation is a significant challenge in China and globally.
- Current medical service management faces issues with equitable physician distribution.
Purpose of the Study:
- Analyze physician distribution across China's 31 provincial regions.
- Evaluate the fairness of physician allocation based on population and service area.
- Provide a theoretical foundation for improving physician resource allocation.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the China Health Statistics Yearbook 2019 and National Bureau of Statistics.
- Calculated Gini coefficients and Theil indices using Lorenz curves.
- Assessed fairness of physician distribution by population and service area.
Main Results:
- Physician distribution is fair by population (Gini=0.003), with minimal regional variation per 1000 people.
- Distribution is highly unfair by service area (Gini=0.88), showing significant disparities per square kilometer.
- Regions like Beijing, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Tianjin exceed the national average; some are over-provisioned.
Conclusions:
- Reducing regional differences in physician numbers is essential for equitable resource allocation.
- Measures are needed to decrease quality disparities and balance medical resources.
- Improved allocation will enhance citizen access to quality medical services.
Background:
Unequal allocation of medical physician resource represents one of major problems in the current medical service management in China and many other countries. This study is designed to analyze the current distribution of physicians in 31 provincial administrative regions in China, to estimate the fairness of the distribution of physicians and provide a theoretical basis for the improvement of the allocation of physicians.
Methods:
This study took physicians from 31 provincial administrative regions in China as the study objects, and the data were obtained from the China Health Statistics Yearbook 2019 and the official website of the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Calculation of the Gini coefficient (G) and the Theil index (T) were carried out by drawing the Lorenz curve. The fairness of present physician location in 31 provincial administrative regions in China was analyzed from the perspective of distribution by both population and service area.
Results:
The Gini coefficients of medical physicians in China are 0.003 and 0.88 by population and by service area, respectively. This shows that the distribution of medical physicians is fair basing on population, and there is little difference in the number of physicians per 1000 population in different regions. However, the physician distribution basing on service area is highly unfair and shows a large gap in the number of physicians per square kilometer between different regions. In general, Beijing, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Tianjin are higher than the overall level of 31 provincial administrative regions. In addition, the number of medical physicians in Zhejiang, Shandong, Beijing and Jiangsu is over-provisioned.
Conclusion:
Bridging the number of medical physicians in different regions is a key step to improve the equity of physicians' resource allocation. Thus, findings from this study emphasize the need to take more measures to reduce physician quality differences between regions, balance and coordinate medical resources. This will increase the access of all citizens to quality medical services.
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