EQUITY GAUGE PROFILES: CHINA

Name of Project: Establishing The China Health Surveillance System

Focus:
An innovative longitudinal survey mechanism will continuously monitor household (and community) cohorts for a systematic documentation of health inequalities in China. Strong emphasis on community involvement.

Goal: We propose to establish the China Health Surveillance System (CHSS), a household-based comprehensive health monitoring system. This system regularly collects data from a cohort of 5000 families, representative of China’s high income, middle income, and poor households in 9 provinces. The CHSS will use a computerized process (local area network and the Internet) to generate and disseminate timely information.

Partners

• Harvard University,
• Chinese Ministry of Health,
• Center for Health Statistics and Information
• Beijing University Health Science Center
• Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine
  

Key People:

• Yuanli Liu, Assistant Professor of International Health, Harvard School of Public Health
• Kequin Rao, Director, Center for Health Statistics and Information, China Ministry of Health
• Zhu Li, Professor of Epidemiology and Reproductive Health, Medical Epidemiological Research Unit, Beijing University Medical Center;
• Professor Shuigao Jin
• Jungchen Qien
  

Indicators under consideration:

• Socioeconomic Conditions: health of the family members, time allocation at home (e.g., child care, elderly care, other key home activities) and economic activities, water sources, construction and condition of the home, and on ownership of consumer durables.
• Health and Health Services: weight, height, arm and head circumference, mid-arm skinfold measurements, and blood pressure (for adults only), nutritional status (individual dietary intake for three consecutive days), physical functioning, and mental health status, insurance coverage, medical providers, and health facilities that the household might use under selected circumstances, accessibility, time and travel costs, and perceived quality of care, illnesses and on all uses of the health system during the previous three months, immunizations, use of preventive health services, and use of family planning services.
• Community Survey Socioeconomic Conditions: collects information from a knowledgeable respondent on community infrastructure (industrial output, development programs and progress, water, transport, electricity, communications), NGOs, social activities to measure social capital, services (family planning, health facilities, retail outlets), population, average income, and other related variables.
• Health Facilities: In each community, information on every identified health service and family planning provider or facility is collected. The data sets cover information about personnel, sources of funds, services available, prices (asked separately for insured and self-pay patients), outputs and expenditures etc.

Data Sources:
Community questionnaire (filled out for each of the 160 primary sampling units) quarterly household interviews and physical examinations