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Copyright of Economic Science / Jingji Kexue is the property of Economic Science Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

On May 26, 2023, the Legislative Yuan passed the "Indigenous Peoples Health Act," marking a significant shift in the indigenous body politics' implications of the nation-state since 1945. This elevated the longstanding indigenous health policy from a planned level to a legal status, and transformed the promotion of indigenous health policy from a legal issue into a political one. However, if government agencies lack political and democratic accountability in implementing the "Indigenous Peoples Health Act," it could potentially lead to a legitimation crisis in the nation's body politics of indigenous peoples, as well as tension in relations between indigenous peoples and Han Chinese in Taiwan. Therefore, it is still unclear whether the passage of the "Indigenous Peoples Health Act" will truly contribute to improving the health inequalities of indigenous peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies from around the world demonstrate that COVID-19 has had significantly higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and mortality among indigenous and other vulnerable groups than among mainstream population groups. This situation has exposed and reinforced pre-existing health inequalities. This article investigates the rates of infection and mortality among different cultural groups during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then deconstructs the key elements related to systemic or structural racism. The impacts on the human rights and health of indigenous peoples and issues of policy formulation and resource equity during the epidemic are also mentioned. Based on the identified root causes of health inequality, suggestions for reducing health inequality for Taiwanese indigenous peoples are proposed. Further, during epidemics, policymakers must design and implement culturally appropriate epidemic prevention policies, systems, and strategies for indigenous and other disadvantaged populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To examine factors affecting health inequality of urban elderly in China and to provide evidences for promoting equality in healthy aging. MethodsThe data on 16170 urban elderly aged ≥ 65 years were extracted from Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) conducted yearly from 2005 to 2018. Health inequality and its changing trend among the elderly were comprehensively assessed with mobility scale, physical activity scale, social activity scale, and symptom-problem complexity scale. Recentered influence function-index-ordinary least squares (RIF-I-OLS) decomposition method was used to analyze influencing factors of health inequality among the elderly. Results Among the elderly surveyed, the average score for quality of well-being scale increased from 0.66 in 2005 to 0.72 in 2018. An income-related health inequality was observed among the elderly and the Wagstaff′s index (WI) and Erreygers′s index (EI) for health inequality fluctuated over time, decreasing from 0.0269 and 0.0258 in 2005 to 0.0225 and 0.0207 in 2018, indicating that individuals at younger ages were more likely to have health inequality compared to the elderly at old ages. All the results of regression analysis on influencing factors for the four-category health inequality indexes obtained by the RIF-I-OLS decomposition method demonstrated that total medical expense in previous one year, availability of timely medical treatment for major disease, and self-supported living at older age were protective factors against the health inequality; whereas, disparities in age/education/family medical payment ratio, pension inequality, and differentiation of current physical activity could exacerbate the health inequality among the urban elderly.ConclusionAmong urban elderly in China, unequal socioeconomic status is an incentive factor for health inequality; promotion in the fairness and efficiency of medical health system, household′s reduction in disease burden, and improvement in the redistribution of pension system may buffer and compensate the health inequality.

ObjectiveTo explore the status and contributing factors of health inequality among rural elder residents in Shaanxi province．MethodsThe data on 6 857 rural elderly aged 65 years and over were extracted from the dataset of Fifth National Health Services Survey held in 32 counties of Shaanxi province during 2013. Concentration index was employed to evaluate the health inequality. Decomposition of concentration index was used to quantify the contribution of every determinant to total inequality. ResultsThe two-week prevalence and the prevalence rate of chronic diseases among the elderly were 37.15% and 47.15% in 2013. The concentration indexes were 0.0896 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.0716, 0.1075) and 0.0565 (95% CI: 0.0420, 0.0710) for the probability of two-week disease prevalence and the prevalence rate of chronic diseases. The main influencing factors of inequality in two-week prevalence and chronic disease prevalence were economic condition (with the contribution rates of 98.40% and 63.93%) and physical exercise (5.47% and 4.30%); economic status accounted for most of the existing inequality. ConclusionThere was a relatively small pro-rich health inequality among rural elderly in Shaanxi province; the health inequality could be improved by further improving health system and rural social endowment insurance system, and promotion of health attitude and behaviors among the elderly population.

In recent years,the emergence of mobile internet-based crowdfunding has provided a new way for the poor to obtain emergency relieves for medical needs. Despite a number of reported scams,medical crowdfunding as a wholes has made an important social contribution to the society. Public opinions and sentiment highlight two practical issues:Are the resources being directed to the people who need the most?And how can we optimize the crowdfunding?To tackle these questions,we focus on the issue of how the socioeconomic status of help seekers affect their internet fundraising outcomes. We ask three research questions:What is the correlation between the socio-economic status of help seekers and their crowdfunding effectiveness? What are the underlying mechanisms for success? Is there a possible optimization path for crowdfunding? Our data is based on the 1930 fundraising cases from a large medical crowdfunding platform in China. The study finds significant differences in effectiveness among different socioeconomic status groups. Higher SES status correlate with higher donation figures,fundraising target completions,a larger number of donations received and more cross-social media platform reposting. This socio-economic gradient phenomenon contradicts the social expectation of prioritizing help to the most needed in medical crowdfunding.The analysis of mediation effect also shows that the offline interpersonal network plays an important intermediary role. While good case narratives are helpful but they are not the intermediary mechanism that links the family’s socio-economic status and crowdfunding effect. Further analysis also finds that when fundraising begins with We Chat friends circles and then moves to public platforms,the impact of socioeconomic gradient seems to reduce its significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Society: Chinese Journal of Sociology / Shehui is the property of Society: Chinese Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives: Workers’ socioeconomic positions may influence the risk of occupational injury. However, in Taiwan, research on this issue remains limited. This study examined the recent trends, distribution, and social inequalities of occupational injury. Methods: We obtained data from the workers’ compensation insurance during 2016–2018. Incidence rates of occupational injuries were compared by gender, age, level of insured salary, employment type, and industry. Results: From 2016 to 2018, 1617 fatal and 150,026 no nfatal occupational injury benefit claims were granted in 30,809,863 insured person-years. Incidence rates of fatal and nonfatal occupational injuries were 5.25 and 486.94 per 100,000 person-years, respectively. Although the incidence rates of fatal occupational injury were declining, the proportion of commute injury accounted for 36.3% of total occupational injury claims, and this proportion was increasing steadily. For both fatal and nonfatal occupational injuries, men and those aged >60 or <20 years had a significantly high risk. Those in the highest salary bracket had the lowest incidence of occupational injury, but no apparent pattern was observed between insured salary and occupational injury rate. However, construction workers showed significantly high incidences of both fatal and nonfatal occupational injuries. Workers in transport, logistics, and primary industrial sectors, including agriculture, fishery, forestry and mining were also observed to have high incidence rates of fatal occupational injuries. Conclusions: Labor authorities should examine and improve regulations and measures for occupational safety and health protection, particularly for high-risk groups. In addition, the relationship between insured salary and socioeconomic position deserves further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Society: Chinese Journal of Sociology / Shehui is the property of Society: Chinese Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives: This study investigated the medical treatment of migrant workers with tuberculosis. The aim was to determine if this vulnerable group still had barriers in accessing medical care resources. Methods: Adopting a qualitative research design, this study used purposive sampling to conduct in-depth interviews with nine migrant workers infected with tuberculosis and one tuberculosis case manager. Data collected from these interviews and participant observation were analyzed qualitatively. Results: Four factors were found to influence the migrant workers’ access to medical resources: constraints of current related policies, cultural and communicative barriers, job mediators’ and employers’ lack of medical knowledge, and the tactics of medical personnel. Conclusions: This study recommended that (1) related government departments propose projects to empower medical personnel and improve their cultural competence; (2) hospitals cooperate with civil organizations to provide different resources to solve the health problem of migrant workers; (3) the government reinforce cross-departmental communication to create a better medical treatment environment for migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies from around the world demonstrate that COVID-19 has had significantly higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and mortality among indigenous and other vulnerable groups than among mainstream population groups. This situation has exposed and reinforced pre-existing health inequalities. This article investigates the rates of infection and mortality among different cultural groups during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then deconstructs the key elements related to systemic or structural racism. The impacts on the human rights and health of indigenous peoples and issues of policy formulation and resource equity during the epidemic are also mentioned. Based on the identified root causes of health inequality, suggestions for reducing health inequality for Taiwanese indigenous peoples are proposed. Further, during epidemics, policymakers must design and implement culturally appropriate epidemic prevention policies, systems, and strategies for indigenous and other disadvantaged populations.

Objectives: As children represent the future assets of a country, their access to care to maintain their health is critical. This study assessed the distribution of health and health care uses among children. The determinants of the equity distribution were also explored. Methods: The data were taken from the 2001 Taiwan National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) linked with the 2001 National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD); 3,470 children aged 12 and younger were identified as the sample. Income-related distribution of health and health care uses were examined by adapting the concentration index and the Index of Horizontal Inequity (HI). Decomposing the concentration index facilitated the identification of factors which contributed to the unequal and inequitable distribution of health and health care uses. Results: Children in poorer households were more likely to encounter developmental problems in hearing and learning. Visits to Western doctors (excluding visits for preventive services), dentists, and emergency rooms tended to show a pro-rich distribution; however, the rich and the poor showed similar patterns of hospital admissions. In general, the educational attainment of the main care giver and household income were the two major factors contributing to the observed inequity. Conclusions: More resources should be devoted to health promotion among care givers. Family characteristics of the socially disadvantaged should be considered when devising subsidy policies targeting children to effectively provide appropriate care to children in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies on health inequality in main European countries and America have found that socioeconomic status (SES) has powerful and sustainable positive relationships with health. Social causation theory has thus been forwarded, stating that SES is the most important determining factor of one' s health, namely, those who have higher SES also have better health. However, its mechanism has not been theoretically explained or tested. On the other hand, social epidemiology has focused on how health-related lifestyle and behavioral factors affect health, but it has neglected the fact that lifestyle is shaped by social structural factors. According to Cockerham's lifestyle model, the present research treated lifestyle as the mediating mechanism between SES and health in the analysis of the emergence of the health inequality among Chinese citizens. Three hypotheses were developed: first, there existed health inequality among people with different socioeconomic statuses in China; second, health-related lifestyle would have a significant effect on health; and third, SES influenced health via lifestyle. All three hypotheses were supported by the data from China General Social Survey (2005) . As those developed countries in Europe and America, China apparently had significant health inequality among people: the higher the SES, the better the health status (measured by self-reported method) . SES influenced health via health-related lifestyle by the healthy-lifestyle-demand mechanism. The groups in higher social statues demanded much more for healthy lifestyle and they were able to afford the expenses to maintain such lifestyle, which in turn directly promoted their health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate two hypotheses about the fairness of healthcare for an aging population. These two hypotheses were (1) the health equality hypothesis, i.e. income-related health inequality should decrease as age increases; (2) the equity of healthcare utilization hypothesis, i.e. given the same health condition, income-related utilization inequity should decrease and tend to be pro-poor as age increases. Methods: We estimated the functions of health production and healthcare utilization, so that these estimates could be used to calculate the partial concentration indices of health and healthcare utilization. Results: Our results indicated that Taiwan's healthcare system failed to meet the standards proposed by the health equality hypothesis, but satisfied the requirements of the equity of healthcare utilization hypothesis for the aging population. Conclusions: Taiwan's healthcare system has reduced the incomerelated inequity of healthcare utilization due to implementation of National Health Insurance. Healthcare reform should now focus on decreasing health inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]