The community proactive health management model based on the grounded theory: The case of Beijing, China

Abstract

The 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic has been a governance challenge for countries and cities worldwide. In China, the community-based joint prevention and control governance mechanism is one of the highlights of the “Chinese experience” in fighting the pandemic. As aging accelerates, communities can take on more functions in managing the health of their residents. Especially in the post-pandemic era, the actual needs of community residents in terms of health, medical care, and elderly care need to be addressed. This paper uses a questionnaire to understand the current situation of community health management in Beijing, followed by the selection of four typical communities for in-depth interviews, and uses the triple process of open coding, selective coding, and theoretical coding of the grounded theory to analyze residents' needs and willingness for proactive health management. More than 80 concepts, 41 categories, and 6 master categories were obtained from 204 initial statements. The “logical line” of the relationship between the main categories was constructed, and we developed a conceptual model of community-based proactive health management, consisting of six dimensions: (1) perception and willingness, (2) primary population, (3) health behavior paradigm, (4) management mechanism, (5) information technology applications, and (6) facilities and services. The study aims to contribute to the community-based health management in China and for the international community and provide strategies to improve community-based health management.