Chronic Conditions and Receipt of Treatment among Urbanized Rural Residents in China

Juan Chen

doi:10.1155/2013/568959

Abstract

While undergoing the unprecedented urbanization process in the past few decades, China has also experienced a major epidemiological shift from predominantly infectious diseases to chronic conditions. Using data from a national survey of 1,288 respondents in urban China, this study examines the prevalence of chronic conditions and receipt of treatment among urbanized rural residents who have experienced in situ urbanization. Negative binomial and logistic regressions were applied to estimate the differences in chronic conditions, receipt of treatment, and concern of seeking medical treatment among urbanized rural residents as compared to urban residents and rural-to-urban migrants. The results indicate that urbanized rural residents have similar number or prevalence of chronic conditions with urban residents, but they are less likely to receive treatment particularly for cardiovascular conditions. The analysis further reveals that urbanized rural residents are more anxious about their potential inability to cover medical expenses than both urban residents and rural-to-urban migrants. The study stresses the converging prevalence of chronic conditions but the continuing divide in receipt of treatment between urban residents and urbanized rural residents. As China's urbanization continues with the epidemiological transition, there is an urgent need to address such disparities.

Highlights

In the past three decades, China has seen the largest human migration in history and an accelerated process of urbanization [1, 2]
Using data from a 2011 national survey of urban China, this study addresses two questions: First, what is the prevalence of chronic conditions of urbanized rural residents, and how does it differ from the rate of urban residents and rural-to-urban migrants? Second, what is the prevalence of receiving treatment for chronic conditions among urbanized rural residents, and how does it compare with the situation of urban residents and rural-to-urban migrants? To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study examining the health status of in situ urbanized rural residents who account for significant percentage of the new urbanites in China
About 36 to 37% of urban residents and urbanized rural residents have at least one chronic condition, and about 19 to 20% of them have more than one chronic condition; these prevalence rates are 2 to 3 times higher than those among rural-to-urban migrants (16% and 6%, resp.)

Summary

Introduction

In the past three decades, China has seen the largest human migration in history and an accelerated process of urbanization [1, 2]. The scale and speed of China’s urban growth has been primarily driven by rural industrialization, conversion of farmland, and rural-to-urban migration [2, 4]. Of the 440 million people who account for the urban growth since 1979, about half are temporary rural-to-urban migrants, whereas the rest are in situ “urbanized rural residents.”. More than 200 million new urbanites have never left their home village. The city came to them, either through relabeling their rural address as a city district or by rapidly expanding into the countryside that surrounded the villages [1, 3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion