CONTEXT The National Children's Study (NCS) is a longitudinal study of environmental influences on children's health. Recruitment of a representative birth cohort that will be followed until 21 years of age requires unique approaches across the nationwide study communities. PURPOSE To describe community outreach and engagement in preparation for household recruitment of women of childbearing ...

BACKGROUND Systems of governance play a key role in the operation and performance of health systems. In the past six decades, China has made great advances in strengthening its health system, most notably in establishing a health insurance system that enables residents of rural areas to achieve access to essential services. Although there have been several studies of rural health insurance sche...

Banking business has done wonders for the world economy. The simple looking method of accepting money deposits from savers and then lending the same money to borrowers, banking activity encourages the flow of money to productive use and investments. This in turn allows the economy to grow. In the absence of banking business, savings would sit idle in our homes, the entrepreneurs would not be in...

CONTEXT China's New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) is designed to improve health-service access for rural residents and prevent impoverishment due to medical expenses. Ethnic minority regions in China have specific socioeconomic conditions and policy environments worthy of exploration to assist in the development of rural health insurance schemes. ISSUE At the end of 2008 the NCMS's ...

BACKGROUND Iodine deficiency disorders (IDDs) refer to a series of diseases caused by the human body's insufficient iodine intake. Edible salt became iodized in China in 1996, which yielded remarkable results. We have known that IDDs is associated with iodine in the human body, but it is not clear whether IDDs is related to medical resource level. METHODS We collected the number of IDDs cases...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the trend of catastrophic health expenses (CHE) for inpatient care in relation to the commencement of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) in rural China from 2003 to 2013, and the roles of NCMS in protecting affected households from CHE. METHODS We assessed the 10-year trend of the incidence and severity of CHE in rural households with hospitalised members using da...

BACKGROUND The Second China National Sample Survey on Disability in 2006 showed that the participation rate of disabled Chinese rural individuals in social medical insurance participation was less than 30%. However, there has been limited number of studies on the influencing factors, especially contextual factors, affecting their participation in social medical insurance. Therefore, this study ...

BACKGROUND The goal of the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NCMS) is to decrease the financial burden and improve the health of rural areas. The purpose of the present study is to determine how government subsidies vary between poorer and wealthier groups, especially in low-income regions in rural China. METHODS The distribution, amount, and equity of government subsidies delivered via N...

Objectives: To describe the development of NCMS in the past decade including three sections and to bring up relevant policy implications. Methods: Based on secondary data and literature review, the evolution and achievement of NCMS in the past decade and the expected future challenges were analyzed. Results: Impressive advances have been seen in establishing the largest medical insurance system...

BACKGROUND Prevention of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) remains challenging across the spectrum of health care. There are limited data on prevention practices for CDI in the rural health care setting. METHODS An electronic survey was administered to 21 rural facilities in Wisconsin, part of the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative. Data were collected on hospital characteristics and prac...