ArticleInternational journal for equity in health2017
Impact of health workforce availability on health care seeking behavior of patients with diabetes mellitus in China.
Article in International journal for equity in health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- Barriers to utilization of primary healthcare services: a systematic review of experiences in ten selected countries.International journal of public health · 2026Pooled it
- Optimizing the frequency of physician encounters in follow - up care for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review.BMC primary care · 2024Pooled it
- Regional-level spatial accessibility and diabetes management in South Korea: a multilevel analysis using national longitudinal data.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Understanding functional diversity in public primary health care: a cluster analysis of utilization patterns.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Assessing the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of resource allocation effects on patient flow in shanxi's County hospitals, China.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Social determinants of health and type 2 diabetes in Asia.Journal of diabetes investigation · 2025Review
- Internet use and healthcare utilization among older adults in China: a nationally representative cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- The relationship between health literacy and health-seeking behavior amongst university students in Ghana: A cross-sectional study.Health science reports · 2024Article
- Relationships between the Structural Characteristics of General Medical Practices and the Socioeconomic Status of Patients with Diabetes-Related Performance Indicators in Primary Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Analysis of patient medication compliance and quality of life of physician-pharmacist collaborative clinics for T2DM management in primary healthcare in China: A mixed-methods study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Association between Self-Medication for Mild Symptoms and Quality of Life among Older Adults in Rural Japan: A Cross-Sectional Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Article
- Effect of hospital attributes on patient preference among outpatient attendants in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia: discrete choice experiment study.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Establishing and evaluating physician-pharmacist collaborative clinics to manage patients with type 2 diabetes in primary hospitals in Hunan province: study protocol of a multi-site randomized controlled trial in the era of COVID-19 pandemic.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Article
- The Urban-Rural Disparities and Associated Factors of Health Care Utilization Among Cancer Patients in China.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Unmasking unexpected health care inequalities in China using urban big data: Service-rich and service-poor communities.PloS one · 2022Article
- Health shocks and changes in preventive behaviors: Results from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Incentives Promoting Contracted Family Doctor Service Policy to Improve Continuity and Coordination in Diabetes Patient Management Care in China.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The Value of Telemedicine for the Follow-up of Patients with New Onset Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus During COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey: A Report of Eight CasesJournal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChina has a high burden of diabetes mellitus (DM), and a large proportion of DM patients remain untreated for various reasons, including low availability of primary health care providers. DM patient management is one of the priorities in China's national essential public health programs. Shortage of health workforce has been a major barrier to improving access to health care for DM patients. This study examines the impact of the health workforce on outpatient utilization of DM patients.
methodsData were collected from China National Health Service Surveys in 2008 and 2013, covering 94 rural counties and 156 urban districts, respectively, with a total of 15,984 DM patients. Household data and facility-based data at county/district level were merged. The health workforce was measured by number of physicians per 1,000 population in county hospitals and primary health centers (PHCs), respectively. Health care seeking behavior was measured by health care utilization and distribution of health providers of the DM patients. Multilevel zero-inflated negative binomial regression was used to analyze the impact of the health workforce on outpatient visits by DM patients, and a multilevel, multinomial logit model was used to examine the impact of the health workforce on choice of health providers by DM patients.
resultsAn increase in the number of physicians at both county hospitals and PHCs was associated with increased outpatient visits by DM patients, particularly more physicians at PHCs. With increased numbers of physicians at PHCs, outpatient visits among residents with DM in rural and western areas of China increased more than those in urban and eastern areas. More physicians at PHCs had a positive impact on improving the likelihood of outpatient visits at PHCs. The positive influence of increasing the number of physicians available to DM patients in rural and western areas was greater than that for urban and eastern DM patients.
conclusionsThe health workforce is a key component of any healthcare system and is critical in improving health care accessibility. Strategies to increase coverage of health workforce at PHCs are crucial to achieving adequate levels of health services for DM patients. Allocation of health workforce should focus on PHCs in rural and low-income areas.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.