An assessment of the economic burden of senile chronic diseases in China based on China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey

ABSTRACT

Objective

This study assessed the economic burden of senile chronic diseases (SCD) in China.

Methods

Based on China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey data, we used propensity score matching to compare the economic burden of SCD for families with and without members with SCD.

Results

We examined three aspects of economic burden: health service utilization, including health care utilization and expenditure, family daily consumption spending, and workforce participation of family members in labor markets. SCD-families showed a higher hospitalization rate and number of outpatient visits than the control group. SCD-families also consumed less per capita. Additionally, the negative influence of SCD on total family income may be partially offset by increasing the labor force participation rate of healthy family members. Finally, we also discussed the burden of SCD  in different educational status.

Conclusions

Relevant results may provide insight into formulating health and labor policies by the Chinese government. The study significance consists of the selection of matching variables and robustness, whereas study limitations include the omission of other important variables.

KEYWORDS:

• CHARLS
• economic burden
• senile chronic diseases (SCD)
• robustness check
• workforce participation rate
• health service utilization
• education level

Article Highlights

• We used the latest data of CHARLS (2015), which covered more than 10,000 families and 17,500 individuals from 150 districts of 28 provinces.

• We matched an SCD-family with an NSCD-family on large observable educational and population structures, which reduce the risk of confusion caused by non-random distribution of SCD.

• Findings revealed that the financial burden of SCD, whether public support or out-of-pocket expenses, may not be as large as the burden of people without a match.

• Robustness tests were performed in this study.

Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Timothy Kyng and Professor Fei Guo at Macquarie University, Dr Chang Li at Wonkwang University for their thoughtful guidance, especially in English editing.

Author contribution statement

Conceptualization, Xiaocang Xu; methodology, Linhong Chen; software, Linhong Chen; formal analysis, Xiayan Dong; resources, Zhiming Xu; writing—original draft preparation, Linhong Chen; writing—review and editing, Xiayan Dong; supervision, Xiaocang Xu; project administration, Xiaocang Xu.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer Disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by China Chongqing Social Science Planning Fund: No: 2016QNSH24, Chongqing Education Commission Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project, grant number No: 19SKGH089 and Research project of Chongqing Technology and Business University, grant number No: 1751005.