Insights from COVID-19: Reflecting on the Promotion of Long-Term Health Policies in China

Does the Healthy China 2030 Policy Improve People's Health? Empirical Evidence Based on the Difference-in-Differences Approach

Background

The Healthy China 2030 (HC2030) policy is currently recognized as China's most significant and influential national health policy. However, despite its implementation in 2016, the policy's impact has yet to be comprehensively evaluated, particularly in relation to its effectiveness in enhancing population health and promoting public health equity.

Methods

We utilized the Difference-in-Differences (DiD) method to evaluate the impact of the HC2030. Our analysis utilized a panel dataset derived from five longitudinal surveys conducted by the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS).

Results

The implementation of HC2030 has improved the overall health status of residents, particularly in urban areas and the western and eastern regions. Mechanistic analysis has further unveiled that the policy's beneficial impact on health outcomes is attributed to a rise in physical activity frequency and the betterment of mental health. Additionally, female, married, and medically insured individuals have demonstrated a significant positive impact of the policy on their health outcomes.

Conclusion

Although the HC2030 appears to have effectively improved overall population health, it needs to promote equity in public health adequately. The study suggests adjustments are needed to address the unequal distribution of health outcomes between urban and rural areas and among different regions.

Cracking the code of health security: unveiling the balanced indices through rank-ordered effect analysis

BACKGROUND

Health security is a critical issue which involves multiple dimensions. It has received increasing attention in recent years, especially in China. In order to improve the national health level, China has made many efforts, such as the "Healthy China 2030" plan proposed several years ago. However, due to the complexity of its national conditions and the difficulty of index design, the results of these efforts are not significant. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a new measurement index system.

METHODS

Based on the questionnaire of "Health China 2030", we have collected a total of 3,000 participants from all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China. We used statistical methods such as multiple correspondence analysis and rank-ordered effect analysis to process the data. The balance index is constructed by a series of actions such as weight division, order calculation and ranking.

RESULTS

Through multiple correspondence analysis, we can find that there was a close relation in the correspondence space between the satisfaction degrees 1, 2, and 3, while a far distance from satisfaction degrees 4 and 5. There were four positive and four negative indices separately based on the average expected level and four clusters after ordinal rank cluster analysis. Generally speaking, there are no prominent discrepancies across gender and residential areas.

CONCLUSIONS

We created and examined balanced indicators for health security in China based on the "Health China 2030" questionnaire. The findings of this study give insight into the overall situation of health security in China and indicate opportunities for improvement.