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This paper examines caregiving for sick older family members in the context of socio‐economic transformations in rural China, combining empirical investigation with normative inquiry. The empirical part of this paper is based on a case study, taken from fieldwork in a rural Chinese hospital, of a son who took care of his hospitalized mother. This empirical study highlighted family members' weiqu (sense of unfairness)—a mental status from experiencing mistreatment and oppression in family care, yet with constrained power to explicitly protest or make care‐related choices. Underpinning people's weiqu and constrained choice, as informed by the conception of structural injustice, is the impact of unjust social structures, organized by unfavourable norms, discriminatory social policies and institutions targeting rural populations. By restraining individual choices and capacities in supporting health care for aging populations, these unjust structures create additional difficulties for and discriminations against rural families and their older members. Some policy recommendations are proposed to mitigate structural injustice so as to empower families and promote care for older people in rural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient satisfaction has been seen as a key criterion when evaluating hospitals and is one of the main focuses of the current health‐care reform in China. This paper aimed to explore patient‐ and hospital‐level factors associated with inpatient satisfaction, which can provide policy implications for the evaluation and development of a patient‐oriented health‐care system. Methods: The paper analyses data from the 2017 China National Patient Survey which includes 20 300 inpatients from 131 tertiary hospitals across 31 provinces. Descriptive analysis and multivariable logistic regressions are conducted to identify key factors related to satisfaction. Results: Patient sociodemographic characteristics, including gender, age, income and insurance type, are found to be strongly associated with their satisfaction of inpatient experience. In terms of institutional characteristics, hospital type, size, staffing and financial performance are also significantly correlated with inpatient satisfaction. Patients are more satisfied with specialist hospitals and large hospitals measured by the number of beds and surgeries. Hospitals with higher nurse‐to‐bed ratio also receive more satisfaction. The financial performance of hospitals, however, is negatively associated with satisfaction. Conclusion: Patient satisfaction contains unique information on service quality and thus should be incorporated into the matrix of hospital evaluation. Meanwhile, differences in patient composition must be adjusted to make fair comparisons across hospitals. Moreover, future reform needs to put greater efforts in the design of comprehensive public insurance scheme, efficient hospital structure and an overall well‐functioning health‐care delivery system in order to better serve patients in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The utility efficiency of medical devices is important, especially for countries such as China, which have a large population and shortage of medical care resources. Radiotherapy devices are among the most valuable and specialized equipment categories and carry enormous treatment loads. In this study, a novel method is proposed to improve the efficiency of a radiotherapy device (linac). Although scheduling management with accurate prediction of the entire treatment time included in each appointment, arrange a reasonable time duration for appointments and save time between patient shifts effectively. Tasks belonging to the treatment and non‐treatment groups can be assigned more flexibly based on the availability of time. Material and methods: Data from 1665 patients, including patient positioning time (PT) and treatment time (TT), were collected in collaboration with the Radiotherapy Center of the Department of Oncology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University from November 2020 to August 2021. The features related to PT and TT were extracted and used to train the machine learning‐based model to predict PT and TT in independent patients. The prediction results were subsequently applied to a minute‐based scheduling tool. Conclusion: Artificial intelligence is a promising approach to solve abstract problems with a specialized knowledge background. The results of this study show encouraging prediction outcomes in relation to effective scheduling management and could improve the efficiency of the linac. This successful trial broadens the meaning of medical data and potential future research directions in radiotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The increasing incidence of cancer in China has posed considerable challenges for cancer care delivery systems. This study aimed to determine the general population's preferences for cancer care, to provide evidence for building a people‐centered integrated cancer care system. Methods: We conducted a discrete choice experiment that involved 1,200 participants in Shandong Province. Individuals were asked to choose between cancer care scenarios based on the type and level of hospitals, with various out‐of‐pocket costs, waiting time, and contact working in the hospitals. Individual preferences, willingness to pay, and uptake rate were estimated using a mixed‐logit model. Results: This study included 848 respondents (70.67%). Respondents preferred county hospitals with shorter hospitalization waiting times and contact working in hospitals. Compared to the reference levels, the three highest willingness to pay values were related to waiting time for hospitalization (¥97,857.69–¥145411.70–¥212,992.10/$14512.70–$21565.16–$31587.61), followed by the county‐level hospital (¥32,545.13/$4826.58). The preferences of the different groups of respondents were diverse. Based on a county‐level general hospital with contact in the hospital, 50% out‐of‐pocket costs and a waiting time of 15 days, the probability of seeking baseline care was 0.37. Reducing the waiting time from 15 to 7, 3, and 0 days, increases the probability of choosing a county‐level hospital from 0.37 to 0.58, 0.64, and 0.70, respectively. Conclusions: This study suggests that there is a substantial interest in attending county‐level hospitals and that reducing hospitalization waiting time is the most effective measure to increase the probability of seeking cancer care in county‐level hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To determine the efficacy of Internet‐based interventions in decreasing the prevalence of postpartum depression in perinatal women. Design: This review was conducted according to the standards outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses statement. Methods: We performed a systematic meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials on the efficacy of Internet‐based interventions for postpartum depression. Studies (2008–2018) were identified through a search conducted on PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library. Risk ratios or weighted mean differences with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using a fixed‐effects model or a random‐effects model. Stata software 11.0 was used to perform the meta‐analysis. Results: Most of the seven eligible studies were randomized controlled trials. The random‐effects model indicated that Internet‐based interventions significantly improved postpartum depression (d = 0.642, N = 7). Attrition rates ranged from 4.5%–86.9% and from 0%–87.1% for the intervention and control groups, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic and prognostic values of serum KL-6 levels in Chinese patients with interstitial lung disease (ILDs). Methods A total of 1084 subjects including 373 cases of ILDs, 584 cases of non-ILD pulmonary diseases, and 127 healthy individuals were recruited from three clinical centers in China between January 2011 and December 2013. A total of 106 patients undergoing treatments for ILDs in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital between January 2011 and December 2013 were enrolled. Baseline and posttreatment serum KL-6 levels were determined. Results Serum KL-6 levels in patients with ILDs were significantly higher than those in patients with non-ILD pulmonary diseases or in healthy individuals (1492.09 ± 2230.08 U/mL vs 258.67 ± 268.73 U/mL or 178.73 ± 71.17 U/mL, all P < 0.05). At the cut-off value of 500 U/mL, the sensitivity and specificity of serum KL-6 as a diagnostic marker for ILDs was 77.75% and 94.51%, respectively. The Kappa value was 0.743 ( P < 0.001). The area below the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.922 with a 95% Confidence interval of 0.904-0.941 ( P < 0.001). The posttreatment serum KL-6 levels significantly reduced in patients with improved ILDs, whereas markedly increased in patients with exacerbated ILDs (All P < 0.05). Conclusions Serum KL-6 levels might be a promising diagnostic biomarker for ILDs in Chinese patients. The prognostic value of serum KL-6 levels for ILDs remains to be verified by large-scaled studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Linked Articles: This article is part of a themed section on Chinese Innovation in Cardiovascular Drug Discovery. To view the other articles in this section visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bph.2015.172.issue-23. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At an early stage of its foundation, new China became clear about the nature of public welfare and quickly developed medical and health services, which was well received by the World Health Organization. The marketization and the reduction of input into medical and health services from the 1980s created severe adverse consequences. After the SARS' outbreak in 2003, China started to give serious consideration to its medical and health system, and to work at developing medical and health services. The new healthcare reform launched in 2009 re-emphasizes fairness and public welfare, and China's achievements have been remarkable. Of course, there are still many problems to be solved in the reform, which also paves the way for increasing the reform in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]