ArticleBMJ open2018
Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines for children: a cross-sectional survey in Jiangsu Province, China.
Article in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global, regional and national availability of essential medicines for children, 2009-2020: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2023Pooled it
- Parental preferences for generic substitution policies for children in China: a discrete choice experiment.BMJ open · 2026Article
- The triple burden: A systematic review and meta-analysis of essential medicine availability, price, and affordability across Ethiopian health facilities.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Review
- Access to essential and innovative anti-cancer medicines: a longitudinal study in Nanjing, China.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- A proposed analytical framework for qualitative evaluation of access to medicines from a health systems perspective.BMC research notes · 2024Article
- Availability, price, and affordability of anti-hepatitis B virus drugs: a cross-sectional study in China.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2024Article
- Machine learning for screening and predicting the availability of medications for children: a cross-sectional survey study.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Article
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- Access to medicines for children in China.BMJ paediatrics open · 2022Review
- Improving access to medicines: lessons from 10 years of drug reforms in China, 2009-2020.BMJ global health · 2022Article
- Accessibility of Essential Medicines for Children in Sichuan Province of China: A Cross-Sectional Study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- Article
- Evaluating the Price, Availability, and Affordability of Essential Medicines in Primary Healthcare Institutions: A Mixed Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Study in Jiangsu, China.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
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- Availability, pricing and affordability of essential medicines in Eastern Ethiopia: a comprehensive analysis using WHO/HAI methodology.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2021Article
- Availability and affordability of children essential medicines in health facilities of southern nations, nationalities, and people region, Ethiopia: key determinants for access.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Accessibility of Medicines for Children: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2021Article
- Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam.PloS one · 2021Article
- The effects of medicines availability and stock-outs on household's utilization of healthcare services in Dodoma region, Tanzania.Health policy and planning · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveChina has undertaken several initiatives to improve the accessibility of safe and effective medicines for children. The aim was to determine the availability, price and affordability of essential medicines for children.
designCross-sectional survey.
settingSix cities of Jiangsu Province, China.
participants30 public hospitals and 30 retail pharmacies. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The WHO/Health Action International standardised methodology was used to collect the availability and price data for 40 essential medicines for children. Availability was measured as the percentage of drug outlets per sector where the individual medicine was found on the day of data collection, and prices were measured as median price ratios (MPRs). Affordability was measured as the number of days' wages required for the lowest paid unskilled government worker to purchase standard treatments for common conditions.
resultsThe mean availabilities of originator brands (OBs) and lowest priced generics (LPGs) were 7.5% and 34.2% in the public sector and 8.9% and 29.4% in the private sector. The median MPRs of LPGs in both sectors ranged from 1.41 to 2.12 and 1.10 to 2.24, respectively. However, the patient prices of OBs far exceeded the critical level in both sectors, with median MPRs ranging from 2.47 to 8.22. More than half of these LPGs were priced at 1.5 times their international reference prices in the public sector. Most LPGs were affordable for treatment of common conditions in both public and private sectors, as they each cost less than the daily wage for the lowest paid unskilled government worker.
conclusionsAccess to essential medicines for children is hampered by low availability. Further measures to enhance access to paediatric essential medicines should be taken, such as developing a national essential medicine list for children and mobilising the enthusiasm of pharmaceutical firms to develop and manufacture paediatric medicines.
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