Measuring inequalities in the public health workforce at county-level Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in China

Cai, Weiqin; Li, Chengyue; Sun, Mei; Hao, Mo

An understandable fact is that most public health workers prefer to settle in developed areas where they can provide for themselves and their spouses and children and have more opportunities for professional development, education, and other conveniences. However, in rural and remote areas where the most serious public health problems have been identified, especially in developing countries, PHWs are scarce. As a consequence, there is a growing number of studies that have also focused on the influencing factors of health resource distribution [20] , especially the determinants of variations in geographical distribution [21] . The factors that motivate, promote, and retain public health workers move to areas offering attractions such as better salaries and training opportunities mainly constitute financial, career development, continuing education, institutional infrastructure, resource availability, organization management, personal recognition or appreciation, and social elements including educational opportunities for children and employment opportunities for spouses [22] . Therefore, based on an inequality analysis and decomposition of inequality, the present study attempted to determine the contextual factors of PHW inequality to analyze the causes of inequality in PHW distribution.