Effectiveness of health service/investment interventions aimed at reducing inequalities in health among older people in China: a longitudinal study

This project will investigate the effects of health service/investment on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) prevention initiatives and health inequalities among elderly people in China. China has the largest ageing population in the world. NCDs are common among older people and have been found to increase the risks of health and mortality.

China has achieved nearly universal coverage of health insurance for elderly people since 2011; however, insufficient provision of health insurance and its unequal distribution according to different health insurance schemes among elderly people in China are likely to have considerable impact on the health outcomes of its fast-growing ageing population. In addition, the quality and availability of the health services and health investments vary greatly among provinces as a result of the provinces’ different levels of economic development. Investigating the efforts of health service/investment from the government have NCDs prevention initiatives and reduced the inequalities in health could help to understand the effectiveness of health investment in the last few years.

This project will use the micro level (individual) from Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey from 2008 to 2014 (16,840 respondents) and macro level (province) data from Chinese Statistics Yearbook. During these 6 years, the Chinese government has achieved universal coverage of health insurance as well as growth in the investment of health services. Multilevel models will be used to investigate the effects of health service/investment (macro level) on health inequalities among elderly people (individual level) in China spatially and temporally.

We expect to submit two academic publications. These papers will have the results and the discussions of current health policy. The discussions will feed into policy implications for future health care reform under the National Strategy “Healthy China 2030”, launched by the Chinese State Council in October 2016.