Effects of health poverty alleviation project from the perspective of vulnerability to poverty: evidence from five Chinese prefectures

ABSTRACT

Background

The Health Poverty Alleviation Project (HPAP) has received widespread attention as a primary means of preventing poverty caused by illness. However, further evidence is required to confirm the effects of HPAP.

Objective

This study examines the effectiveness and mechanisms of action of HPAP using data from a special survey conducted in five Chinese prefectures in 2018–2019.

Method

This study uses a three-step feasible generalised least-squares method to measure the farm households’ vulnerability to poverty. Hierarchical linear regression and propensity score matching were employed to assess the poverty-reduction effects of HPAP. A mediating effects model was used to test how these policies alleviated poverty.

Results

The mean vulnerability to poverty among farm households was 0.367, with 11.89% experiencing both poverty and vulnerability, particularly in areas of deep poverty. This study has found that HPAP significantly reduces poverty and is more effective in reducing the vulnerability of non-poor farm households than poor farm households. Additionally, the results suggest that improving human capital stock and reducing medical expenditure are the two pathways through which HPAP can alleviate farm households’ vulnerability to poverty.

Conclusions

This study suggests that the vulnerability to poverty perspective should be incorporated into poverty alleviation policy formulation. HPAP enhances differentiation and precision. Thus, a long-term mechanism of HPAP should be developed.

KEYWORDS:

• Health Poverty Alleviation Project
• vulnerability to poverty
• hierarchical linear regression
• propensity score matching
• China

Responsible Editor Jennifer Stewart Williams

Responsible Editor Jennifer Stewart Williams

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the project “Effect of health poverty alleviation on population development in deep poverty-stricken area and policy improvement” Key Project of The National Social Science Fund of China under Grant [number 18ARK001]. The authors also acknowledge the data support from the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China.

Author contributions

Yan Wei: Conceptualisation, Project administration, Writing – review, Validation, Funding acquisition. Zhaochi Zhang: Data curation, Writing – editing, Visualisation. Mingjian Zhang: Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft preparation. All authors have read and agreed to the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

The survey was approved by the Ethics Committee of Xi’an University of Finance and Economics and in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. All subjects were voluntary and gave written informed consent. All subjects were guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity.

Paper context

The study started with the implementation of the Health Poverty Alleviation Project. The authors confirmed that the Health Poverty Alleviation Project could reduce the vulnerability to poverty especially in the non-poor, by improving human capital stock and reducing medical expenditure. It is suggested that the Health Poverty Alleviation Project should enhance differentiation and precision, and more measures should be introduced to prevent poverty.

Notes

¹ 1 mu = 666.67 m²

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The National Social Science Fund of China under Grant No. 18ARK001 and Graduate Innovation Funds of Xi’an University of Finance and Economics under Grant No. 22YCZ03.