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. 2023 Nov 21:11:1269886.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1269886. eCollection 2023.

Spatial and temporal analysis of China's healthcare resource allocation measurements based on provincial data: 2010-2021

Hengna Ren  1 , Chen Li  2 , Yi Huang  3
Affiliations

Spatial and temporal analysis of China's healthcare resource allocation measurements based on provincial data: 2010-2021

Hengna Ren et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: With the development of society, industrialization, urbanization, aging, lifestyle and social transformation, environmental degradation, global warming and other factors have had a great impact on the health of the population, and there is an urgent need to take a series of practical actions to promote the improvement of national health. Among them, healthcare resource allocation plays a key role in advancing the level of national health, treatment of chronic diseases, and leisure and healthcare.

Methods: This article collected panel data on healthcare resource allocation in all provinces of China from 2010 to 2021, and comprehensively applied Analytic Hierarchy Process, comprehensive scoring method, regional difference analysis and spatial autocorrelation analysis to reveal regional differences, spatial-temporal patterns and development characteristics of healthcare resource allocation in China.

Results: In terms of regional differences, intra-regional differences in healthcare resource allocation tend to narrow and inter-regional differences tend to widen. In terms of spatial pattern, the western provinces on the left side of the Hu Huanyong line generally have higher scores, while the central and eastern provinces on the right side of the Hu Huanyong line have lower scores, and healthcare resource allocation in the provinces on the left side of the Hu Huanyong line, such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, have the spatial characteristics of HH clusters in terms of geographic location, while the southeast coastal provinces, such as Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, have the spatial characteristics of LL clusters in terms of geographic location. From the quadrant analysis, the 2010-2021 healthcare resource allocation in the first quadrant concentrates most of the provinces in the western and northeastern regions, while the third quadrant concentrates most of the provinces in the eastern region.

Conclusion: The allocation of healthcare resources in China's four major zones has undergone a process of change from "unbalanced quantity to relatively balanced quantity," but high-quality healthcare resources are highly concentrated in the eastern part of the country, and the problem of contradiction between people and doctors is prominent. It is recommended that Internet plus healthcare technology be used to reshape the regional allocation of high-quality healthcare resources.

Keywords: China provinces; healthcare resource allocation; regional differences; spatial autocorrelation; spatial–temporal pattern.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Healthcare resource allocation composite score of China (2010–2021).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Contribution of Theil index to healthcare resource allocation in China (2010–2021).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Spatial pattern of healthcare allocation scores by province in China.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Healthcare resource allocation LISA cluster by province, 2000–2021.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Two-dimensional quadrant classification of healthcare allocation composite scores by province in China.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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