Equity of community health resource allocation for the elderly in Shanghai / 中华健康管理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the equity of community health resource allocation available to the elderly in Shanghai to provide a reference for the optimization of their allocation and to ensure the basic medical needs of the elderly.Methods:116 community health service centers were selected as research objects. Based on the human resources and financial inputs for community health, the Gini coefficient and Theil index were used to analyze the equity of community health resource allocation in Shanghai from the service population and across geographical dimensions.Results:The Gini coefficients of in-service health technicians and total financial compensation, as based upon the dimension of serving the elderly population, were 0.116 and 0.251, respectively, while the Gini coefficients based on the geographical dimension were 0.483 and 0.329 (respectively). The results of the Theil index analysis are relatively consistent with the Gini coefficient. The equity of health human resource allocation is slightly better than that of financial investment, and the equity of health resource allocation population is better than that concerning geography. Regional differences are the main factors regarding the equity of health resource allocation of the elderly community based on geographical factors (71.47%-86.71%), intra-regional differences were the main source of equity differences in community health resources allocation based on the elderly population (52.52%-89.44%).Conclusion:The allocation structure of community health resources for the elderly in Shanghai is, on the whole, fair; but, the differences between population equity and geographical equity, and between and within regional plates, cannot be ignored.