Study on Equity and Efficiency of Health Resources and Services Based on Key Indicators in China

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 12; p. e0144809
• Main Authors: Zhang, Xinyu, Zhao, Lin, Cui, Zhuang, Wang, Yaogang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 17.12.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Best practice; China; Data envelopment analysis; Data processing; Delphi Technique; Efficiency; Efficiency, Organizational - statistics & numerical data; Equality; Factor analysis; Geography; Health care access; Health care policy; Health economics; Health Resources - statistics & numerical data; Health services; Health Services - standards; Health Services - statistics & numerical data; Healthcare Disparities - statistics & numerical data; Hospital costs; Humans; Income; Indicators; Institutions; Life expectancy; Medical care; Medical personnel; Medical screening; Operations research; Population; Provinces; Public health; Quality Indicators, Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Resource allocation; Resource Allocation - statistics & numerical data; United States; Utilization; United States; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144809

This study aims to evaluate the dialectical relationship between equity and efficiency of health resource allocation and health service utilization in China. We analyzed the inequity of health resource allocation and health service utilization based on concentration index (CI) and Gini coefficient. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate the inefficiency of resource allocation and service utilization. Factor Analysis (FA) was used to determine input/output indicators. The CI of Health Institutions, Beds in Health Institutions, Health Professionals and Outpatient Visits were -0.116, -0.012, 0.038, and 0.111, respectively. Gini coefficient for the 31 provinces varied between 0.05 and 0.43; out of these 23 (742%) were observed to be technically efficient constituting the "best practice frontier". The other 8 (25.8%) provinces were technically inefficient. Health professionals and outpatient services are focused on higher income levels, while the Health Institutions and Beds in Health Institutions were concentrated on lower income levels. In China, a few provinces attained a basic balance in both equity and efficiency in terms of current health resource and service utilization, thus serving as a reference standard for other provinces.