Prevalence of illness and household ill-health risk coping strategies in rural China, a Chinese literature review

This paper reviews literature on the prevalence of illness and household coping strategies in rural China, and determines the questions needed to be answered through further research. 

Existing studies provide evidence that ill-health risks has become more complex in rural China. Due to tremendous socioeconomic changes chronic non-communicable illnesses have become a leading cause of death. While morbidity from infectious chronic diseases has declined, morbidity from non-communicable chronic illness has been increasing. Evidence is provided that serious illness has a great impact on household income generation, consumption expenditure, human capital accumulation, and livelihood strategies and outcomes.

Households with low-income are more exposed to the risks of  ill-health, often forming a vicious cycle in which the illness leads to lower income, which in turn reduces the coping strategies available. Researchers have found evidence of households in rural areas adopting various methods of prevention, mitigation and coping strategies in response to health risk. These strategies are dependent on household composition and economic status.

Investigated literature includes the following topics:

• prevalence of illness in rural china which includes the study of the two-week morbidity, morbidity from chronic illness and the prevalence of selected serious illnesses like TB and HIV/AIDS
• economic risks of ill-health and household coping strategies which includes the study of impact of ill-health on household livelihoods, income and consumption expenditure, investment and human capital and household ex ante and ex post coping strategies

Besides this, further research on certain topics is recommended. More research on patterns of illness prevalence for both previously common illnesses and increasingly widespread illnesses (such as non-communicable chronic illnesses) is needed. There is also a need to further investigate the characteristics of households with different types of illness, to understand the socio-economic factors determining household healthcare seeking behaviour and the impact of serious illness on household livelihoods. More empirical studies on household ill-health risk coping strategies deserve high research priority. Studies using both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the impact of informal and institutionalised solutions to overcome the huge problems of the poor in accessing quality health care are needed. These would assist the early identification of vulnerable households and the design of appropriate policy interventions.