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Typical of most industries, digitisation of healthcare products, services and models of E-Commerce is democratizing the current healthcare system in China while unlocking new previously inaccessible healthcare segments. This monumental convergence of healthcare industry with IT is part of a larger evolution and growth of E-Commerce from simple search portals for purchasing goods and services to more integrated digital marketplace that incorporates personalized experience and informed purchase decision making into online behaviours. The result is the manifestation of a new era of healthcare consumerism, as healthcare customers demand retail-like buying experience. We performed a comprehensive systematic scoping review of published data to identify how E-Commerce is complementing the traditional healthcare delivery system in China. We note that healthcare E-Commerce is facilitating the reconstruction of the healthcare value chain in China and at the same time is helping health facilities to reengineer operations and service processes. Our study highlights the important role E-commerce is playing in the healthcare industry in China.

Since the dawn of humanity, women have acquitted themselves creditably with this responsibility of childbirth even at the peril of their lives. Overtime, the politics, process and social mores that surround pregnancy and birth have evolved along with the growth and maturity of the medical profession, and the art and craft of motherhood. However, the introduction of the universal two-child policy in China without corresponding change in the income and expenditure mix of the maternity insurance schemes in Qinghai province threatens the sustainability of maternal health initiatives for minority ethnic groups in Western China. The analytical model used in this study hybridizes a system dynamics and actuarial model to express the maternity insurance expenditure and income function. The study noted that at the current contribution rate of 0.5%, the maternity insurance fund in Qinghai province will be depleted by the end of 2020 and this can influence catastrophic maternal health crisis in the poorer region. The analysis also shows that if the contribution rate can be raised to 0.75%, the depletion rate of the maternity insurance can be prolonged. We proposed an increase in the current rate of contribution of the maternity insurance fund in Qinghai province; improve investment income for the maternity insurance fund and other reliable sources of sustainable funding.

Environmental health security as a developmental goal is directly linked to environmental quality across the globe. China believes that maintaining an attractive, stable and profitable environmenta...

BackgroundFamily practice and family doctors are critical part of China’s primary healthcare delivery in a constantly evolving society. As the first point of contact with the medical system, family practices require physically and psychologically sound and a well-motivated family doctors at all times. This is because an error can lead to loss of lives as gatekeepers of the medical system. Our study explored the extent to which positive psychological capital promotes higher performance among family doctors.MethodsA questionnaire was used to collect data from family doctors in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Beijing. We applied a structural equation analysis to analyze the causal relationship among the variables.ResultsWe found out that psychological well-being and job involvement significantly influences the performance of family doctors in China. The study also noted that psychological capital moderates the relationship between psychological well-being attainment, job involvement, and performance.ConclusionsStudies have shown that these pressures affect their well-being considerably. For this reason, a healthcare professional who experiences positive emotions affects the total behavior which culminates into performance.

The maternity insurance fund in some provinces in China has accumulated unprecedented deficit levels. This imminent depletion can cause a catastrophic health crisis for maternal health. This study analyzed the post-policy impact of key factors on maternity insurance income inflow and outflow in Jiangsu Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (AR). We applied Pasera’s ARLD model and VECM Granger Causality Test to establish long- and short-term impact of selected factors that determines the income and expenditure of the maternity insurance fund in the two regions based on data from 2011 to 2019. Our results show that the addition of new births due to the universal two-child policy has increased the per capita utilization of the maternity insurance fund in both areas. We further observed that the impact of the maternity insurance contribution rate to the maternity insurance fund decays with time giving a long-run limited impact in both provinces. Thus the positive impact is stronger in the short term, but in the long term, its influence or contribution to stability of the funds reduces. The positive impact of interest from investment in the maternity insurance fund is however insignificant in both provinces, giving a major cause for concern on its role in maternity insurance fund income generation. In the short term, the contribution rate of the maternity insurance fund must be adjusted upward or the payment base expanded to receive additional contribution from all employees to avoid complete depletion of the fund. In the long term, we recommend the need to replenish the maternity insurance funds through proper investment options for the funds. We further recommend the need to look for other sources of funding social interventions based on existing practices in other countries.

Despite the positive effect of industrialisation on health and quality of life indicators across the globe, it is also responsible for the release of chemical toxins into the environment. Thus, the pursuit of economic development through industrialisation has equally nurtured numerous environmental disasters with accompanying catastrophic health effects. China is one of the countries with high carbon emissions, but new policy changes have resulted in massive gains in controlling environmental damage while enhancing the environment-related quality of life. This paper combines the six-step integrative review strategy with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) strategy to determine appropriate exclusion and inclusion criteria to explore the available stock of literature. We note that overall pollution in China fell by 10% between 2014 and 2019 whereas the average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration of 93 micrograms per cubic meter reduced by 47% by 2019. Beijing exhibited the top 200 most polluted cities in 2019 after recording the lowest PM2.5 ever. All cities that implemented the 2012 Environmental Air Quality Standards reduced the average concentration of PM2.5 and sulfur dioxide by 42–68% by the end of 2018. Improvements in freshwater quality and a decline in water pollution levels were recorded despite increases in economic growth, urbanisation, energy use, trade openness, and agriculture, all of which are major stimulants of pollution. Deterring environmental tariff, tight ecological inspections, closing down of non-compliant producers, heavy investment in environmental control, and the ambitious five year-plan to revitalise renewable energy goals emanating from China’s ecological civilisation masterplan are responsible for these improvements in air and water pollution. China needs to work more aggressively to consolidate the gains already made in order to quicken the actualisation of the ecological civilisation and beautiful China dream.

Despite the positive effect of industrialisation on health and quality of life indicators across the globe, it is also responsible for the release of chemical toxins into the environment. Thus, the pursuit of economic development through industrialisation has equally nurtured numerous environmental disasters with accompanying catastrophic health effects. China is one of the countries with high carbon emissions, but new policy changes have resulted in massive gains in controlling environmental damage while enhancing the environment-related quality of life. This paper combines the six-step integrative review strategy with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) strategy to determine appropriate exclusion and inclusion criteria to explore the available stock of literature. We note that overall pollution in China fell by 10% between 2014 and 2019 whereas the average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration of 93 micrograms per cubic meter reduced by 47% by 2019. Beijing exhibited the top 200 most polluted cities in 2019 after recording the lowest PM2.5 ever. All cities that implemented the 2012 Environmental Air Quality Standards reduced the average concentration of PM2.5 and sulfur dioxide by 42–68% by the end of 2018. Improvements in freshwater quality and a decline in water pollution levels were recorded despite increases in economic growth, urbanisation, energy use, trade openness, and agriculture, all of which are major stimulants of pollution. Deterring environmental tariff, tight ecological inspections, closing down of non-compliant producers, heavy investment in environmental control, and the ambitious five year-plan to revitalise renewable energy goals emanating from China’s ecological civilisation masterplan are responsible for these improvements in air and water pollution. China needs to work more aggressively to consolidate the gains already made in order to quicken the actualisation of the ecological civilisation and beautiful China dream.

Background The family doctors’ contract service problem is not about government management alone, but an interaction of a complex social environment. Consequently, the effect of contracted services of family doctors not only depends on policy incentives but also needs to win the participation, acknowledgement, and confidence of community residents. The purpose of this integrative review is to examine whether there is any significant evidence that social capital in the form of social networking groups and other forms of social groups have any positive impact on the acceptance and the effectiveness of family doctors' contractual services. Method Research on qualitative, quantitative and hybrid methods published in peer-reviewed journals on the social capital role in the process of contract service of family doctors were eligible for inclusion. In view of the increasing attention paid to the contract service effect of family doctors during this period, a 10-year time scale was selected to ensure full coverage of relevant literature in the same period. In total, 809 articles were determined in the database retrieval results which were downloaded and transferred to the Mendeley reference application software. Results Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria for this integrative review and the quality of the included studies were assessed using the published criteria for the critical appraisal of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Majority of the articles assessed reported that there was evidence of a positive link between social support, especially a sense of belonging and the presence of regular family doctors. The influencing factors of patients' contract behavior of studies conducted in China were social interaction of social capital, acceptance of the first contact in the community, year of investigation, and exposure to the public. Conclusion The study affirms previous studies that suggest that social resources have the propensity to improve relationship between patients and clients and between doctors and peers for the benefit of the patients and the stability of the overall healthcare system. Through the integration of various social resources family doctor systems accelerate the development of community construction. These social capital (social network groups) can guide residents to use family doctor services to maintain health. Social capital can also help residents have a regular and reliable family doctor.

Background Despite the overwhelming feeling of great happiness, joyful excitement and rituals that heralds the arrival of a child, for too many women (especially in developing countries), child bearing is associated with suffering, ill health and even death. The need to consolidate and support women to procreate in tranquillity has inspired international and domestic agencies to harness the resources at their disposal to protect the health of women especially during pregnancy, child birth and the post-partum period. Methods The study applied a systems dynamic model to selected data to establish the influence of the universal two-child policy in China on maternity insurance fund income. The study also established sensitivity analysis of the appropriate rate of contribution to keep the fund active. Results The study revealed that increases in utilisation rate as results of increase in number of births under the universal two-child policy increased the accumulated deficit of the maternity insurance fund income in the Ningxia-Hui Autonomous Region. At the current rate, the entire fund will be depleted by the end of 2021 unless the contribution rate is increased from 0.5% to 0.75%. Conclusions Maternal health is a “sentinel event” requiring an unprecedented global resource mobilisation to safeguard the future of humanity. Thus maternity insurance schemes in China require new methods of fund raising to keep a sustainable maternity insurance fund in the region. Study also reveals that population reform is not done in isolation but require changes in the fundamental social structures to ensure its sustainability.

This study aims to examine the impact of China's population policy changes on social insurance. Nearly 4 decades ago, China ushered in the 1-child policy as a family planning policy to control the adverse effect of high population growth. The current maternity insurance system in China is designed to fit the operations of the 1-child policy. However, the implementation of the comprehensive 2-child policy can pose a challenge to the sustainability of the current maternity insurance scheme hence the call for reform. The study empanels a novel and comprehensive system dynamic model that incorporates all the related factors that influence the income and expenditure of maternity insurance in the Jiangsu Province. Data are mainly derived from the historical data of the Statistical Yearbook of Jiangsu Province and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. These are used to construct and simulate a system dynamic model to determine a sustainable contribution rate for maternity insurance. In conclusion, if the rate of contribution of the current maternity insurance policy is not increased, the burden of implementing the comprehensive 2-child policy will exacerbate the current deficit balance of the maternity insurance fund. The existing maternity insurance benefits thus cannot be maintained, and women's health will be threatened. In the short term, the study proposes an increase in the rate of premium payment to prolong the life of the maternity insurance. In the long term, there is a need to improve the level of coordination and expand the coverage of maternity insurance.

Background While the demand for health services keep escalating at the grass roots or rural areas of China, a substantial portion of healthcare resources remain stagnant in the more developed cities and this has entrenched health inequity in many parts of China. At its conception, China’s Deepen Medical Reform started in 2012 was intended to flush out possible disparities and promote a more equitable and efficient distribution of healthcare resources. Nearly half a decade of this reform, there are uncertainties as to whether the attainment of the objectives of the reform is in sight. Methods Using a hybrid of panel data analysis and an augmented data envelopment analysis (DEA), we model human resources, material, finance to determine their technical and scale efficiency to comprehensively evaluate the transverse and longitudinal allocation efficiency of community health resources in Jiangsu Province. Results We observed that the Deepen Medical Reform in China has led to an increase concern to ensure efficient allocation of community health resources by health policy makers in the province. This has led to greater efficiency in health resource allocation in Jiangsu in general but serious regional or municipal disparities still exist. Using the DEA model, we note that the output from the Community Health Centers does not commensurate with the substantial resources (human resources, materials, and financial) invested in them. We further observe that the case is worst in less-developed Northern parts of Jiangsu Province. Conclusions The government of Jiangsu Province could improve the efficiency of health resource allocation by improving the community health service system, rationalizing the allocation of health personnel, optimizing the allocation of material resources, and enhancing the level of health of financial resource allocation.

Background While the demand for the health service keeps escalating at the grass root or rural areas of China, a substantial portion of healthcare resources remains stagnant in the more developed cities and this has entrenched health inequity in many parts of China. At its conception, the Deepening Health Care Reform in 2012 China was intended to flush out these discrepancies and promote a more equitable and efficient distribution of health resources. Nearly half a decade of this reform, there are uncertainties as to whether the attainment of the objectives of the reform is in sight. Methods We divided Jiangsu Province into 3 zones according to the level of economic and social development i.e. developed, developing, and undeveloped areas. Using a hybrid of Panel data analysis and an augmented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we model human resources, capital inputs of Community Health Centers to comprehensively determine the technical and scale efficiency of community health resources in 3 zones in Jiangsu Province. Results We sampled data and analysed efficiency and productivity growth of 75 Community Health Centers in 13 cities of Jiangsu Province from 2011 to 2015, which shows that a significant productive growth among Community Health Centers between 2011 and 2015. Mirroring the behavior of Community Health Centers, technological progress was the underlying force for the growth and the deterioration in efficiency change was found. This can be credited partly to the Deepening Health Care Reform measures aimed at improving technology availability in health centers in sub-urban areas. The regional summary of the DEA result shows that the stage of economic development and the efficiency performance of hospital did not necessarily go hand in hand among the 3 zones of Jiangsu. Conclusions The government of China in general and Jiangsu province in particular could improve the efficiency of health resources allocation by improving the community health service system, rationalizing the allocation of health personnel, optimizing the allocation of material resources and enhancing the level of health of financial resources allocation.

To survive and prosper in the China, online companies must design their operational platforms to organically adjust to changes in consumer shopping behavior. The study investigated the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence the online purchasing behavior of Chinese millennials. A cohort of university students from selected parts of the Jiangsu province provided the sample of study. Consistent with the extant literature, the research confirms that millenials are influenced by several external factors, demographic factors, personal characteristics, and vendor/service/product characteristics and websites qualities when buying online. The economic, socio-cultural, technological, and legal considerations where the main external factors that influences online shopping behavior of Chinese millenials, internet knowledge, concern for security, need specificity and disposition to trust were the main personal characteristics identified. The study also found significant association between vendor services such as real existence of the store, store reputation, store size, reliability, assurance (seals, warranties, news clips) and use of testimonials/reference have association with millennials’ purchasing intention. Similar characteristics were identified for product characteristics, service quality factors and website quality and each of these is statistically significant. Gender was determined to moderate the effect of all the factors on online shopping behavior.

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, many African governments are now turning to China for the much needed loans and technical expertise to undertake developmental projects. Meanwhile China and Africa exhibited similar socio-economic conditions some three decades ago; high poverty rates and agrarian dominated economies with very low per capita incomes. However, in the past few years, even as Africa remains at the bottom of global economic rankings, China is progressively emerging as the world’s economic powerhouse. This paper examines the literature on how China’s rural reforms program facilitated the country’s fast economic transformation. The reforms process brought about institutional reforms that brought immense changes in the agriculture sector. The institutional reforms led to an increase in public investment in the area of R & D, irrigation, rural education, road, and electricity, which contributed to the growth in agricultural productivity and rural poverty reduction. It is these interventions brought in by the reforms that resulted in the miracle growth experienced by China.

The idea of aggregating information is clearly recognizable in the daily lives of all entities whether as individuals or as a group, since time immemorial corporate organizations, governments, and individuals as economic agents aggregate information to formulate decisions. Energy planning represents an investment-decision problem where information needs to be aggregated from credible sources to predict both demand and supply of energy. To do this there are varying methods ranging from the use of portfolio theory to managing risk and maximizing portfolio performance under a variety of unpredictable economic outcomes. The future demand for energy and need to use solar energy in order to avoid future energy crisis in Jiangsu province in China require energy planners in the province to abandon their reliance on traditional, “least-cost,” and stand-alone technology cost estimates and instead evaluate conventional and renewable energy supply on the basis of a hybrid of optimization models in order to ensure effective and reliable supply. Our task in this research is to propose measures towards addressing optimal solar energy forecasting by employing a systematic optimization approach based on a hybrid of weather and energy forecast models. After giving an overview of the sustainable energy issues in China, we have reviewed and classified the various models that existing studies have used to predict the influences of the weather influences and the output of solar energy production units. Further, we evaluate the performance of an exemplary ensemble model which combines the forecast output of two popular statistical prediction methods using a dynamic weighting factor.