Use of appropriate healthcare technologies: a cross-sectional study in rural Zhejiang of China

作者:Ren, Jianping; Liu, Chaojie; Gao, Qi-Sheng; Yang, Lianping; Huang, Xianhong; Guo, Qing*
来源:BMC Health Services Research, 2015, 15(1): 295.
DOI:10.1186/s12913-015-0947-4

摘要

Background: Appropriate healthcare technologies (AHTs) are an important strategy for improving the availability and accessibility of healthcare services. It is not clear what impact AHTs have on health workers and consumers; and whether those AHTs can continue in place without special or ongoing financial support. This study investigated the attitudes of health workers and consumers towards AHTs. Methods: Health facilities from five counties in Zhejiang were surveyed. Participants of the study included all health workers who were involved in the delivery of AHTs in the selected organizations and a group of randomly selected patients who sought services from the participating organizations. A total of 822 questionnaires from health workers and 693 questionnaires from patients were collected for data analyses. The questionnaires measured perceptions and attitudes of respondents towards AHTs using a Likert scale. Results: The respondents delivering public health services rated the highest scores to AHTs (4.42 +/- 0.7), followed by those engaged in management of chronic conditions (4.41 +/- 0.57) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) (4.29 +/- 0.55). Around 90 % of health workers believed that AHTs were meaningful for rural patients; however, only 69 % of health workers believed that the technologies encouraged by the government were sufficiently developed or "mature", and more than 24 % acknowledged difficulties in using those technologies. Overall, patients were satisfied with AHTs, with 71.6 % feeling "very satisfied" or "satisfied", 24.2 % feeling "acceptable" and 1.6 % feeling "dissatisfied". Most (83 %) patients were satisfied or very satisfied with Traditional Chinese Medicine, compared with management of chronic conditions (80 %), family planning (67 %), public health services (64 %), and finally with maternal and child health care (59 %). Conclusions: Local acceptability should be taken into consideration in determination of AHTs; consumer health literacy needs improvement, particularly in relation to public health and preventive services.