Search

Background: Tuberculosis is the second most deadly infectious disease after COVID-19 and the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. Among the 30 countries with a high burden of TB, China ranks third in the estimated number of TB cases. China is in the top four of 75 countries with a deficit in funding for TB strategic plans. To reduce costs and improve the effectiveness of TB treatment in China, the NHSA developed an innovative BP method. This study aimed to simulate the effects of this payment approach on different stakeholders, reduce the economic burden on TB patients, improve the quality of medical services, facilitate policy optimization, and offer a model for health care payment reforms that can be referenced by other regions throughout the world. Methods: We developed a simulation model based on a decision tree analysis to project the expected effects of the payment method on the potential financial impacts on different stakeholders. Our analysis mainly focused on comparing changes in health care costs before and after receiving BPs for TB patients with Medicare in the pilot areas. The data that were used for the analysis included the TB service claim records for 2019–2021 from the health insurance agency, TB prevalence data from the local Centre for Disease Control, and health care facilities' revenue and expenditure data from the Statistic Yearbook. A Monte Carlo randomized simulation model was used to estimate the results. Results: After adopting the innovative BP method, for each TB patient per year, the total annual expenditure was estimated to decrease from $2,523.28 to $2,088.89, which is a reduction of $434.39 (17.22%). The TB patient out-of-pocket expenditure was expected to decrease from $1,249.02 to $1,034.00, which is a reduction of $215.02 (17.22%). The health care provider's revenue decreased from $2,523.28 to $2,308.26, but the health care provider/institution's revenue-expenditure ratio increased from -6.09% to 9.50%. Conclusions: This study highlights the potential of BPs to improve medical outcomes and control the costs associated with TB treatment. It demonstrates its feasibility and advantages in enhancing the coordination and sustainability of medical services, thus offering valuable insights for global health care payment reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world becomes advance rapidly, and the demand of perishable food increases in the global market. Food firms perceive the cheapest supply chain process for the delivery of products to end consumers. Apart from that, consumer demands high quality and safe products with competitive price. In the global intense competition, China introduced One Belt One Road (OBOR) advanced feature supply chain management system to cut the cost of production for these product firms as well as functionally deliver high quality and green products to end consumer without affecting from high environment temperature. Respectively, the graphical research model and the multi-objective method were developed to examine the estimated perishable product trading figures with consideration to quality, which is achieved by accumulating the advanced transportation features offered by OBOR supply chain management as compared to ancient rail route supply chain. To prove this, "simulation optimization function was applied to measure the probability of time-saving for perishable product quality from environmental effects and its influences over product demand." Some perishable products were selected, and their trading figures and demand value were measured by comparing both rail route environmental effects over demand, weights of products, and trade. The results declare perishable food quality and trading volume increased due to fast delivery of products to numerous countries, having cold supply chain feature under OBOR supply chain management and estimated 25 days of time-saving. Comparative analysis discloses the coherent picture of both trading routes used for delivering the products. "The findings show large amount of time-saving maximizes perishable product quality from environmental influence" estimated 3 times higher with fast train supply chain. Conceptually, perceived from the idea, when and if maglev train 600 km over an hour will be used for perishable product supply chain purpose in the near future, the estimated quality of perishable products and trading is considered to be more than 5 times higher as compared to ancient supply chain route. The study suggests future research direction on topics, food quality along with supply chain management system, and environmental impact measurement policy under different supply chain routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food supply chain is very complicated as compared to other supply chain networks. Adulteration and fraud are common in the food supply chain. "World food safety is at risk, and consumers are worried about vulnerability, contamination, and fraud activities." Moreover, time delay increases the detritions and spoilage conditions in perishable foods. Consumers want timely delivery of foods with maximum surety of safety and quality of foods. Respectively, graphical research method developed to ascertain consumer "both aspect" estimated total robustness. "There is a need to increase the food supply chain network robustness according to the consumer point of view—logistics regression and simulation technique used to find the estimated results." We analyzed, to provide the food delivery to consumers beyond their expectations before ever, give a chance to increase food supply chain robustness through physiologically "perception" and actually "saving 2000 miles." Although to prove this strategy, we select the advanced supply chain network of China one belt one road to deliver foods to end consumers "estimated 2.5 times more robust than ancient network." Additionally, this robust supply chain network provides fast delivery of foods with quick traceability, gives less time for fraud activities, increases food supply chain performance, and decreases the vulnerability ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Telehealth bring significant benefits including improved quality of healthcare, efficiency and cost containment, especially for chronic patients and the elderly. China is the second largest country of investment in telemedicine systems, but the acceptance and behavioral intentions of the technology are still low in the elderly. The objective of this study is to explain the micro-mechanism that determines the behavioral intentions to use telemedicine systems from the perspective of elderly patients based on an extended Technology Acceptance Model.Methods: A sample consisting of 436 elderlies selected through multistage cluster sampling from four cities in mainland China. The empirical study was conducted to examine the proposed model by two aspects: measurement model and structural model.Results: The study determined that medical service satisfaction (t = 6.770, β = 0.332), ease of use (t = 5.200, β = 0.179), information quality (t = 12.540, β = 0.639) had a significant impact on the elderly patients' acceptance to telehealth, and the acceptance had a significant impact (t = 14.356, β = 0.697) on the elderly patients' behavior intentions of telehealth. The results also show that the variable of acceptance has significant mediating effects among the theoretical model.Conclusions: This study confirms the applicability of the extended Technology Acceptance Model in the behavioral intentions among elderly people in China using telehealth systems. The results indicate that relationship between telehealth systems and physical medical services are mutually reinforcing rather than alternative. The study will help technology developers better understand the behavioral characteristics of the elderly and encourage healthcare providers to better understand the true need of telehealth systems. These findings provide valuable information to telehealth system developers, governments, investors, and hospitals to promote the use of this technology by elderly patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The psychological factors are determinants for delivery drivers to adopt electric trucks. • It is necessary to integrate technology anxiety into the extended UTAUT model. • Expanded the literature on UTAUT in the context of electric trucks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Public's reactions toward Changsheng vaccine scandal on the Internet in China. • 215,184 unqualified DTP vaccines were reported to be used for child vaccination. • Over 80% of comments are negative and express weak confidence to China-made vaccines. • Vaccine anxiety influenced by low-satisfaction on vaccine makers and regulation. The public acceptance and implementation of vaccination programs is essential to prevent infectious diseases. However, vaccine adverse events may cause public panic and eventually lead to an increasing number of populations who were hesitant or refuse to participate in these vaccination programs. In 2018, the Changsheng vaccine crisis broke out in mainland China, and 252,600 unqualified DTP vaccines were reported to be used for child vaccination. In this study, we observed media and public reactions toward the vaccine crisis. This study conducted Internet surveillance by four mainstream indicators from July 15th to August 7th, including social media (WeChat, Sina Weibo), online news and Baidu search index. We also analyzed the emotional perceptions of people in crisis through an online questionnaire survey. During the crisis, huge number of articles emerged on Internet, 125,882,894 articles (including forwarding) on WeChat friends circle, 1,877,660 Sina Weibo posts, 648,265 online news and 4,986,521 Baidu search indexes. Most of these articles were negative and expressed the public's weak confidence to the China-made vaccines. Public confidence in vaccines was undermined by the actions of the manufacturer and the government. The DTP vaccine crisis led to panic about immunization and eroded trust in the immunization program and in the government. Restoring public confidence in Chinese-made vaccines will take a long time, and meticulous management in vaccine production, and strict government regulation will help to alleviate public anxiety about vaccine safety and ultimately restore confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examined determinants for Chinese taxi drivers to adopt electric vehicles for living. • Extended the UTAUT2 framework in the context of adopting electric vehicles by taxis drivers. • Incorporated the construct Satisfaction with Incentive Policies in the UTAUT2 framework. • Governments should investigate taxi driver's satisfaction with different incentive policies. • Electric vehicle manufacturers should enhance test-driving experience to taxi drivers. Replacing combustion vehicles with electric vehicles has been promoted by the Chinese government as a viable policy to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this study is to examine factors that influence Chinese taxi drivers' adoption of electric vehicles for living. This study takes the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) as the theoretical framework and extends it to examine the influence of taxi drivers' satisfaction over government's invectives on their adoption of electric vehicles for living (i.e., adoption intention and use behavior). A questionnaire-based survey was conducted in Shenzhen and Guangzhou from November 2018 to April 2019, and 725 valid samples were collected. The model has good explanatory power, and its predictive validity accounts for about 89% of the variance in adoption intention and 50% in use behavior. The statistical results supported that such constructs as Satisfaction with Incentive Policies, Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions, Hedonic Motivation, Price Value, and Habit, are influencing factors on taxi drivers' intention of using electric vehicles (i.e., behavior intention). These constructs, together with Social Influence but excluding Habit, are also influential to the actual use of electric vehicles by taxi drivers for living (i.e., use behavior). This study expands the existing theoretical modeling for characterizing the adoption of electrical vehicles. The study suggests policy makers further investigate taxi driver's satisfaction with different incentive policies, and electric vehicle manufacturers focus on improving hedonic motivation for taxi drivers, e.g., providing test-drive experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The huge gap in adolescent human papillomavirus (HPV) uptake between China (< 2%) and developed countries (> 60%) indicates the necessity of comprehensive examination on the modifiable factors for parents' decision-making. The present study investigated parental perceptions of HPV vaccination for children in China from a socio-economic perspective. Methods : Parents of 9-to-14-year-old adolescents who understood the HPV vaccination (n = 925) completed our questionnaire survey in Fall 2017. Based on the structural equation modeling, we examined the relationship among knowledge, awareness, and intentions of 20 items by 7-point Likert scale, the moderating effects also were tested among 5 socioeconomic variables. Results : Parents of female students have more positive intention about the HPV vaccination than male students' parents (3.74 vs 2.80, p < 0.001). Parents of 12-14-years old students have higher average scores in knowledge (p = 0.006) and intention (p < 0.001) than that of 9-11-years old students' parents. The average score of mothers on knowledge (p = 0.018) and awareness (p < 0.001) was lower than that of fathers. The elder parents (≥ 50 years) performed significantly better on knowledge (p < 0.001) and awareness (p < 0.001) than the other two subgroups. Annual household income is an important factor in determining the knowledge (p = 0.0017), awareness (p < 0.001), and intention (p < 0.001). Knowledge and awareness were considered as the positive determinant of intention, and awareness was partial mediator. Child gender (P = 0.046), child age (P = 0.004), parent gender (P = 0.043) and parental age (P = 0.021) were significant moderators. Conclusion : To improve the acceptability of HPV vaccination among Chinese adolescents, policymakers should develop positive strategies for their parents.