Critical Public Health Problems Perceived by Urban Chinese Health Workers

Abstract

This study surveyed a cross section of urban Chinese health workers' perception of problems, needs and priorities in health care delivery. Eleven categories of problems were identified by the health workers. When asked to prioritize what they perceived as critical public health problems in China, more respondents (25.9%) cited family planning and maternal child health as the most critical problem. However, in terms of response frequency, family planning and maternal child health ranked fifth (10.7%) behind disease prevention (18.4%), health education of the public (15.4%), health services administration (13.1%), and environmental health (12.1%). Other critical problems identified were medical education (10.0%). industrial health (5.3%), research (4.5%), nutrition and food sanitation (4.5%), young adults (3.6%), and the elderly (3.6%). Apparently, family planning is perceived as the most critical societal health problem affecting the welfare of the state, but heart disease, cancer, dysentery, hepatitis, and others were perceived as personal health problems critical to the individual and the public. The delineation suggests a distinction of state versus individual priorities. The Chinese health workers saw solutions to these critical problems more often in combined measures of health education, policy regulation, and medical care, than in single measures. They recognized the importance of an enlightened public and felt that educating the public must undergrid all health measures to reach the goal of Health for All by the Year 2000.