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Background: Most existing research on rural–urban health inequalities focuses on disparities in service access and health outcomes based on region. This paper examines rural–urban disparities in maternal healthcare utilization and delivery modes based on household registration (hukou) status to understand the role of state institutions in producing healthcare disparities in China. Methods: Utilizing administrative data from the Public Maternal Health Insurance scheme, we analyzed 54,733 live births in City A (2015–2019) and 25,849 live births in City B (2018–2019) in Guangdong Province in China. We constructed regression models using hukou status (rural versus urban) as the explanatory variable. Results: While there is no statistically significant difference in rural and urban mothers' probability of obtaining the minimum recommended number of prenatal care checkups in City A (OR = 0.990 [0.950, 1.032]), mothers with rural hukou status have a lower probability of obtaining the minimum recommended number of visits in City B than their counterparts with urban hukou (OR = 0.781 [0.740, 0.825]). The probability of delivering in tertiary hospital is lower among mothers with rural hukou than among those with urban hukou in both cities (City A: OR = 0.734 [0.701, 0.769]; City B: OR = 0.336 [0.319, 0.354]). Mothers with rural hukou are more likely to have a Cesarean section than those with urban hukou in both cities (City A: OR = 1.065 [1.027, 1.104]; City B: OR = 1.127 [1.069, 1.189]). Compared with mothers with urban hukou, mothers with rural hukou incurred 4 % (95 % CI [-0.046, -0.033]) and 9.4 % (95 % CI [-0.120, -0.068]) less in total medical costs for those who delivered via Cesarean section and 7.8 % (95 % CI [-0.085, -0.071]) and 19.9 % (95 % CI [-0.221, -0.177]) less for those who delivered via natural delivery in City A and City B, respectively. Conclusions: Rural hukou status is associated with younger age, no difference or lower probability of having a minimum number of prenatal checkups, higher likelihood of delivering in nontertiary hospitals, increased Cesarean delivery rates, and lower medical cost for delivery in these two Chinese cities. Evaluating how hukou status influences maternal healthcare in Chinese cities is important for devising targeted public policies to promote more equitable maternal health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary: What is known on the subject: Low utilization of the family‐oriented community rehabilitation services is a threatening challenge facing low‐ and middle‐ income countries.Family caregiver's trust in community healthcare providers is the precondition of service utilization and is shaped by their perceived quality of primary healthcare services from previous experience.Most of the studies concerning the relationship between perceived quality and institutional trust were conducted in western countries, resulting in limited attention paid to conditions in non‐western countries. Which aspect of quality predicts institutional trust in China has not been studied yet. What the paper adds to existing knowledge: In China's context, institutional trust was generally associated with communication, worry relief and risk of privacy leak, but not with technical competence.Significant rural–urban disparity was observed: among rural respondents, institutional trust was associated with technical competence, communication and risk of privacy leak, but not with worry relief; institutional trust was only associated with worry relief in urban respondents. What are the implications for practice: Mental health nurses training or working with community healthcare workers may improve their technical and communicative competence. Priorities may differ between rural and urban areas.Mental health nurses or community healthcare workers may provide more family‐oriented psycho‐education to rural families, and more emotional support to urban families.Wider public anti‐stigma initiatives are needed to reduce the affiliated stigma of families of persons diagnosed with a severe mental illness. Introduction: Prior studies suggested that caregiver's trust in community healthcare providers is the precondition of the utilization of community‐based rehabilitation services and is shaped by their perceived quality of primary healthcare services. Nevertheless, the research conducted in non‐western countries is scarce, and which aspect of quality is associated with institutional trust in China has not been studied. Aim: To explore the association between perceived quality of primary healthcare services and institutional trust in China's context. Methods: This cross‐sectional study was conducted with 796 family caregivers from Eastern, Central and Western China between August 2018 and October 2019. Perceived quality of primary healthcare services was measured by technical competence, communication, worry relief and risk of privacy leak. Results: Institutional trust was generally associated with communication, worry relief and risk of privacy leak, but not with technical competence. Among rural respondents, institutional trust was associated with technical competence, communication and risk of privacy leak, but not with worry relief. Contrary finding was observed in urban respondents. Discussion and implications for practice: With rural–urban disparity considered, strategies such as improving the technical and communicative competence of community healthcare workers, providing family‐oriented psycho‐education and emotional support, and promoting public anti‐stigma initiatives may be worth consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal payment for medical services is a common phenomenon in China. Patients make informal payments, in cash or in kind, to physicians in addition to official charges billed for medical services. This paper assesses the associations between patients' perceptions of the physician as an agent for the patient's interests (physician agency problem) and informal payment behavior. Using data of 24,000 and 6700 rural households respectively from the Health Development of Rural China Program database (collected in 2008) and Ningxia data source (collected in 2015), we find that patients' concern about physician agency problems is significantly associated with informal payments. The data shows that patients are more likely to make informal payments when they show low trust towards their physicians. For example, in the surgical cases, among patients who strongly distrusted the physicians, 17.9% (95% confidence interval [CI]:]: 13.5, 22.3) initiated informal payments, compared to 8.0% (95% CI: 5.1, 10.9) who expressed "strong trust" in their physicians. Poor communication was also significantly associated with an increase in the informal payment rate. For example, in the non-surgical setting, among the patients who rated the physicians' explaining skills as "poor," 5.9% (95% CI: 5.0, 6.9) of them made informal payments, significantly higher than the patients who rated "excellent" (of whom 1.8% made informal payments 95% CI, 0.9, 2.7). In this study, we provide an explanation for this finding: patients may initiate informal payments to physicians in order to mitigate the physician agency problem. It suggests that to mitigate informal payments, improving alignment between doctors' incentives and patients' interests would be essential. • Informal payments were directly related to patients' concerns about physicians' behavior. • Patients were more likely to make informal payments when they showed low trust towards their physicians. • Poor communication between patients and physicians was related to informal payment rate. • Informal payment might be viewed as an effort by the patients to align the physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]