Health Service Utilization of International Immigrants in Yiwu, China: Implication for Health Policy

AbstractInternational immigrants ’ health is receiving increasing attention, reflecting the need for health systems to adapt to diverse migrant populations. To better inform health policies suited for the needs of international immigrants living in China, empirical evidence on the health service utilization of these international immigrants living in China is urgently needed. Our study included 5459 international immigrants including inpatients and outpatients, who were treated over a 4-year period (2015–2018) in one of the most frequented hospitals by international immigrants in Yiwu, Zhejiang province. Data (e.g., demog raphic information, outpatient costs, inpatient costs, length of stay, and the average number of visits per patient) were extracted from the Health Information System at the hospital. Descriptive analysis was performed to analyze the basic characteristics of international immigrants living in China (e.g., medical costs, length of stay and the average number of visits per patient) during the study period. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess the factors that influence the health service utilization of international immigrants. International immigrants tended to use outpatient se rvices (accounting for 97.22% of the whole sample) compared with inpatient services (only 2.78% of the whole sample). Most international immigrants visited the hospital because of orthopedics, otolaryngological diseases, pediatric-related diseases and skin-related ...
Source: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research