Effect of Health Education on Healthcare-Seeking Behavior of Migrant Workers in China.

Xuefeng Li,Hui Wang,Han Yang,Xujun Liu

doi:10.3390/ijerph17072344

Abstract

Health education is considered to be an effective way to improve the healthcare-seeking behavior of migrant workers. This study examined the impact of health education on healthcare-seeking behavior of migrant workers in China and explored the differences in different health education methods. This paper used the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) to analyze the relationship between health education and healthcare-seeking behavior. Our results indicated that health education could significantly improve the healthcare-seeking behavior of migrant workers, but there was still ample space for improvement. From the perspective of different health education methods, lectures, public consultation, and online education were positively correlated to healthcare-seeking behavior, while publicity materials and bulletin boards were not. Although the effects of publicity materials and bulletins were limited, these two health education methods were still the most widely used. Our results emphasized the necessity of increasing investment in lectures, public consultation, online education, and other similar health education methods. This change in health education methods can play an effective role in the spread of health education to improve the healthcare-seeking behavior of migrant workers.

Highlights

The term ‘migrant workers’ refers to the labor force groups who work as temporary residents in non-registered locations without changing their household registration [1]
The results showed that receiving health education was positively associated with healthcare-seeking behavior
After receiving health education, the probability of migrant workers seeking healthcare for diarrhea increased by 3.2%

Summary

Introduction

The term ‘migrant workers’ refers to the labor force groups who work as temporary residents in non-registered locations without changing their household registration [1]. In 2018, China’s migrant workers reached 288.36 million, accounting for 20.7% of the total population [2]. Due to the restrictions of the household registration system in China, plenty of migrant workers can only live in working cities temporarily, resulting in their unequal treatment by public services [3,4,5]. Migration reduces the probability of using health records [6]; most of the migrant workers do not even establish health records in their working city. In order to reduce the health risks caused by inadequate health services and ensure social equity, the Chinese government has formulated a series of policies to improve the availability of health services for migrant workers

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion