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The distribution and impact of health resource availability in China
Author(s) -
Prescott Nicholas,
Jamison Dean T.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.4740010106
Subject(s) - china , urbanization , poverty , inequality , distribution (mathematics) , context (archaeology) , resource (disambiguation) , resource distribution , developing country , geography , variation (astronomy) , development economics , economic growth , demographic economics , economics , resource allocation , market economy , mathematical analysis , computer network , physics , mathematics , archaeology , computer science , astrophysics
Since 1949, China's progress in mortality reduction has far exceeded that experienced by other developing countries with comparable levels of national income. This achievement has taken place in the context of a development strategy oriented, in part, to the elimination of the worst aspects of poverty. Using recent cross‐section data, this paper provides a statistical assessment of the extent to which health resources are evenly distributed in contemporary China, and the degree to which improvements in health resource availability may account for the observed variation in mortality levels. Contrary to expectation, the analysis finds that substantial inequalities do remain in the distribution of health resources, and that these differentials are principally associated with levels of urban income and urbanization. However, these differences in health resource availability do not appear to explain the significant variation which also persists in mortality levels, a finding consistent with the results of similar analyses for developed countries.