Chronic diseases have become a major health threat today, and the sub-health of young and middle-aged people in Chinese cities has become the norm. Chinese people have gradually realized the importance of health, and medical and health consumption has gradually increased.
Chronic diseases become major health threats in China
According to the results of the Fifth National Health Service Survey published by the Ministry of Health of China: From 1999 to 2008, China has an average of about 10 million new chronic cases every year; in 2008, the number of chronic disease cases diagnosed by doctors across the country reached 260 million; And according to the Fifth National Health Service Survey released by the Ministry of Health of China in 2016: By 2013, more than 77% of the two-week illnesses were chronic diseases, and the proportion in cities exceeded 80%.
The following table shows the health service surveys conducted by the Ministry of Health in 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013 respectively since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It shows that the incidence of chronic diseases in China is not optimistic.
The proportion of young and middle-aged sub-healthy people in Chinese cities increases
In the “2020 Shanghai White-collar Health Index Report” released by Shanghai Foreign Service, through data analysis of 357,413 workplace white-collar medical examination reports from the Shanghai Foreign Service Health Management Center from 2014 to 2019, less than 0.5% of all physical examination items are normal.
In addition, according to the search proportion of the Baidu Index from January to March 2021, the proportion of people aged 20-39 who search for “lumbar spine” and “cervical spine” is much higher than that of people of other ages; among searches for “health check”, people aged 30-39 account for 50.92% of searches, which is much higher than that of other age groups.
Among the search proportions of “996” (working hour system), the search proportion of people aged 20-29 reached 53.12%, which was much higher than that of other age groups; this reflects that the problems of cervical and lumbar spine diseases, sedentary bowing and working overtime are the problems of young and middle-aged people; the demand for health examinations for young and middle-aged people is very strong.
Chinese residents’ medical consumption consciousness begins to change
As the medical model shifts to prevention-oriented health management, the whole society is paying more and more attention to the advanced prevention of severe infectious diseases and the early screening of chronic disease risk factors. The entire Chinese society is becoming more and more aware of the importance of medical prevention. At present, the health consciousness of Chinese people, especially the health consciousness of urban residents, is undergoing tremendous changes.
China’s per capita health care expenditure rises
In recent years, the level of medical and health care expenditure of Chinese urban residents has increased year by year. In 2020, the per capita medical and health expenditure of urban residents was 2,172 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.8%, accounting for 7.82% of per capita consumption expenditure; the per capita medical and health expenditure of rural residents was 1,418 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2%, accounting for 8.74% of per capita consumption expenditure.
In the first quarter of 2021, China’s urban residents’ per capita health care expenditure was 586 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%; rural residents’ per capita health care expenditure was 353 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%.
Beijing and Shanghai residents spend the most on healthcare
From the analysis of per capita expenditures on health care of urban residents and rural residents in various regions of China, it can be seen that the expenditures of urban residents and per capita expenditures of rural residents in East China are both higher. In 2019, Beijing’s urban residents’ per capita health care expenditure ranked first in the country, at 3,974 yuan; Shanghai ranked second in the country, with an urban per capita health care expenditure of 3,332 yuan; the expenditure on medical care for urban residents in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin all exceeded 3,000 yuan.
The per capita medical and health expenditure of rural residents in Beijing ranked first in the country at 2,247 yuan; Tianjin and Shanghai ranked second in the country, and the per capita medical and health expenditure in rural areas was 2,104 yuan. Overall, in 2019, there were 17 provinces and cities with urban residents’ per capita healthcare expenditure exceeding 2,300 yuan.