The sample household health interview survey.

Abstract

A sample household health interview survey was conducted as part of the China and U.S. collaborative study of Shanghai County. The survey was planned to provide comparative information about the use of services by individuals participating in the 3 major health care systems of the county. The survey objectives included the following: to measure individually perceived morbidity and disability and use of health services; to determine out-of-pocket expenditures on health care and other costs not accounted for by the formal health system; and to examine outreach of the health system for preventive and health promotion services frequency and amount of smoking and consumption of alcohol and pregnancy history of all ever married women under the age of 75. A total of 737 households were interviewed providing information on 3122 individuals. The overall prevalence of conditions was 156/1000. Women uniformly reported more illnesses than men between the ages of 20 and 60. At the time of the survey respiratory and gastrointestinal conditions made up over 40% of all reported conditions with prevalence rates of 43 and 22/1000 respectively. Illness rates varied depending on the reimbursement system to which the person belonged. Differences were found between similar age groups in each reimbursement system. In general males over 49 years of age and females over 14 years of age in the cooperative health systems reported fewer illnesses than individuals of similar ages in the other systems. Children in the cooperative systems however reported more illnesses than in the other systems (except for the few males under age 15 covered by public welfare). The perceived severity of the reported illnesses was analyzed. The data were compared with similar 1978 data from the U.S. Overall the Shanghai County population had about half as many days of restricted activity as the U.S. population fewer days absent from school and fewer days in bed. Out of 449 persons who were ill during the 2 week recall period 346 or 77% sought some type of medical care. During 1980 120 persons in the study population experienced 137 hospital admissions a rate of 44/1000 per year. The average length of stay for these admissions was about 20 days. The average out-of-pocket expenditure per ill person during the 2 week period was 1.40 yuan. In regard to preventive services out of a total population of 207 children under 7 years of age 63% received immunizations and 9% were given well baby checks or physical examinations. 80% of an estimated 35 women who were either pregnant or in the postpartum period received some type of maternity care in the 2 week period. Pregnancy histories were determined for 924 married women. Altogether these women experienced 3050 pregnancies.