Grounded theory study on influencing factors of essential medicine availability in rural areas

Abstract

Grounded theory was used to summarize and analyze influencing factors and their mechanism on availability of essential medicine. Four factors which influenced the availability of essential medicine were singled out: defective top design in the essential medicine system, interactions among its policies, deviations in the policy implementation by government agencies, and deficiency of supporting policies for the system.The availability of essential medicine in rural areas was influenced by a variety of factors. The ideas and methods of the grounded theory prove helpful for this study. In the future studies, both qualitative and quantitative study should be made to perfect this model formed by the grounded theory, to identify roadblocks and underlying causes in order to provide evidence for improving availability of essential medicine in rural areas. Key words: Grounded theory; Rural areas; Essential medicine; Availability