Abstract
BackgroundWomen’s health is defined as a continuum throughout their whole lives. In China, women receive life-round preventative and curative health care from the health system, although the universal access to reproductive health has already been basically achieved in China, the situation of women’s access to curative health care is still unknown.MethodsData from the national maternal and child health human resource investigation were analysed. Lorenz curves, Gini coefficients, and Theil L indexes were drawn and calculated to reflect the inequality. Demographically, we found that the Obstetric and gynaecological (OB/GYN) workforce was the least equitable regarding the distribution of live births.ResultsDemographically, we found that the OB/GYN workforce was the least equitable regarding the distribution of live births. The geographic distribution of the OB/GYN workforce was found to be severely inequitable, especially in the West region. Most of the inequality was found to come from inner-regions.ConclusionFor the first time, the distribution inequality of OB/GYN workforce in China was analysed. The findings in this study can be adopted in making national or regional OB/GYN workforce allocation policies, but further studies are still needed to reveal the detailed sources of inequality and to provide evidence for local policy-making.
Highlights
Women’s health is defined as a continuum throughout their whole lives
In 2010, the Gini coefficient of the total OB/Obstetric and Gynaecological/Obstetrics and Gynaecology (GYN) workforce per 10,000 population in China was 0.182, which indicated an absolute equality, the corresponding comparisons of the Gini coefficients and the Theil L indexes at both national and regional levels are shown in Figs. 3 and 4
When dividing the Obstetric and gynaecological (OB/GYN) workforce into sub-groups of OB/GYN doctors, OB/GYN nurses and midwives, the distribution of midwives per 10,000 population was the least equitable comparing with the distributions of OB/GYN doctors and OB/GYN nurses, according to the Gini coefficient standard, the distribution of midwives per 10,000 population was at the level of relative equality (Gini: 0.238), the distributions of OB/GYN doctors per 10,000 population was at the level of relative equality with a Gini coefficient of 0.209, whereas the distribution of OB/GYN nurses per 10,000 population indicated an absolute equality (Gini: 0.194)
Summary
In China, women receive life-round preventative and curative health care from the health system, the universal access to reproductive health has already been basically achieved in China, the situation of women’s access to curative health care is still unknown. In the new era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the SDG 3 calls for continuous global and domestic efforts to achieve the universal health coverage and to make sure that every person can have equitable access to affordable, accountable, appropriate health services of assured quality [9, 10]. In China, women receive liferound preventative and curative health care from the health system, the universal access to reproductive health has already been basically achieved in China when being measured by the free basic technical services of family planning and systematic maternal management coverage [8]. The situation of women’s access to curative health care is still unknown
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