Abstract
BackgroundStudies assessing the impacts of China’s New-type Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) reform of 2003 among rural elderly have been limited.MethodMultistage stratified cluster sampling household surveys of 1838, 1924, 1879, 1888, 1890 and 1896 households from 27 villages in Jiangxi province were conducted in 2003/2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Data from older adults age 65 and above were analyzed. Weighted logistic regression was applied to find factors of elderly hospitalization services.ResultsSince 2003, hospitalization rates for elderly increased, while rates of patients leaving against medical advice and patients avoiding the hospital decreased (P < 0.05). Factors associated with a higher likelihood of reporting hospitalization in the past year for elderly were the per-capita financial level V in 2012 for NCMS (Adjusted Odds Ratios [aOR]: 2.295), the level VI in 2014 (aOR: 3.045) versus the level I in 2003 and chronic disease (aOR: 2.089) versus not having a chronic disease. Lower rate of elderly left against medical advice was associated with the financial level V in 2012 (aOR: 0.099) versus the level I. The higher rate of hospital avoidance was associated with chronic disease status (aOR: 5.759) versus not having a chronic disease, while the lower rate was associated with the financial level VI in 2014 (aOR: 0.143) versus the level I. Among reporting reasons for elderly hospital avoidance, the cost-related reasons just dropped slightly over the years.ConclusionsNCMS improved access to health services for older adults. The utilization of hospitalization services for rural elderly increased gradually, but cost-related barriers remained the primary reporting barrier to accessing hospitalization services.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1638-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Studies assessing the impacts of China’s New-type Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) reform of 2003 among rural elderly have been limited
Factors associated with a higher likelihood of reporting hospitalization in the past year for elderly were the per-capita financial level V in 2012 for NCMS (Adjusted Odds Ratios [associated with chronic disease status (aOR)]: 2.295), the level VI in 2014 versus the level I in 2003 and chronic disease versus not having a chronic disease
Lower rate of elderly left against medical advice was associated with the financial level V in 2012 versus the level I
Summary
Studies assessing the impacts of China’s New-type Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) reform of 2003 among rural elderly have been limited. According to the standard of age composition from the United Nations, a society is aged if the population of 65 years old and above is more than 7 % of the total population [3]. The China Statistical Bureau reports that 88 million people in China were over 65 years old in the year 2000, accounting for 7.0 % of the total population, meaning that China has become an aging country [4]. Many researchers have worked on the demands and utilization of health services [5], the equity of health services [3], and Fall risk-increasing drugs and falls [6] by the elderly. Government health care finance policy has affected the utilization of health services in the United States [8], Korea [9], Vietnam [10], Singapore [11] and elsewhere
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