Abstract
There were 376 million migrants in China by 2020, who made significant contributions to urban development. However, they used limited medical services and had lower self-reported health status than inflow city residents. Based on this, this study uses the cross-sectional data of the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) to construct a multiple linear regression model to empirically study the role of health education in improving medical services utilization for migrants. It finds that compared to migrants without health education, the probability of the medical service utilization for migrants with health education has increased significantly, and counseling is more effective than other methods for health education. This promotion effect of health education has been established after a series of robustness tests. Furthermore, this study finds that the closer the migrants are to medical service resources, the greater the effect of health education on medical services utilization for migrants. The heterogeneity test shows that the effect of health education on medical services utilization for migrants is greater among the non-elderly and those with lower education levels. From the perspective of health education, the findings in this study provide empirical evidence to support the government in formulating policies to improve the utilization of medical services for migrants and reduce health inequality.
Highlights
Based on the above knowledge gap, using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), this study empirically studied the impact of health education on the medical service utilization of migrants with a multiple linear regression model and a logit model, and identified the moderating effect of the accessibility of medical services
This study examined whether health education effectively improves the health literacy of migrants, and thereby their medical service utilization
In this study, based on a large sample of data from CMDS, we used multiple linear regression, logit regression, and instrumental variable methods to examine the effect of health education on medical service utilization among migrants and the different effects of different health education methods
Summary
Migration is an indispensable part of the contemporary social, political, and economic worlds [1]. Their numbers have reached nearly 376 million, according to China’s seventh national census in 2020, and accounting for 27% of China’s total population. The unprecedented economic growth and urbanization over the past few decades in China has caused a large-scale increase in the number of internal migrants [2–4]. This means that, on average, one in four households is inhabited by a migrant. Migrants are discriminated against in many areas of life, such as education, employment, income, social integration [5–12], and health services [13–16].
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