Research on efficiency measurement and spatiotemporal disparity of rural public health services in China

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 7; p. e0252871
• Main Authors: Li, Liqing, Liu, Zixuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 22.07.2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; Data envelopment analysis; Decision making; Efficiency; Evaluation; Health care disparities; Health services; Medicine and Health Sciences; People and Places; Physical Sciences; Public health; Public health administration; Regions; Rural areas; Social Sciences; Spatial analysis; Variables; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252871

Based on the rural public health services of 29 regions in China, a service efficiency evaluation index system consisting of input and output dimensions was constructed, and the coupling, coordination and disparity efficiencies of rural public health services in China were studied, providing information to redress the imbalance in the interregional coordinated development. The efficiency, spatiotemporal disparity pattern, spatial correlation and evolutionary trend of the coordinated development of rural public health services of 29 regions in China from 2004 to 2018 were analyzed using efficiency and spatial analysis methods such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), kernel density estimation and Moran's â  analysis. Nowadays, there are problems of unbalanced and insufficient development between the fields and regions in the development of rural public health services in China. The development level of rural public health services in various regions shows a distribution pattern that the service efficiency is "high in the middle", "middle in the east" and "low in the west", indicating a spatial cluster effect.