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

In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that current measurement of inequality does not make full use of human resources data [17] . Furthermore, it gives an inequality measure of health workers using the smallest comparable geographical units of data in a nation. Subsequent studies have applied this method and made good progress [11, 18] , but none have been completely followed because of the unavailability of data nationwide. At the same time, current research on China mainly concerns equity analysis of the health workforce and includes little relevant research of the PHW [19] . This study aimed to assess the distribution of PHWs within geographic units based on the availability of country-wide survey data as well as to identify the sources of PHW inequality through the decomposition of inequality, so as to provide a reference for the development of human resource strategies.