Decomposition analysis of health poverty vulnerability and influencing factors among rural women of childbearing age-an empirical analysis based on 2-period panel data in rural Ningxia, China 

Abstract

Background: The health of rural women of reproductive age is crucial to the sustainable development of individuals, families, and society, and conducting research on the identification of health-poor vulnerable groups and influencing factors is an important basis for adjusting and implementing health poverty alleviation policies, but there are few studies on the health-poor vulnerability of rural women of reproductive age. Method: Based on the panel data of the Ningxia "Rural Household Health Inquiry Survey" for 2019 and 2022, the four dimensions of household physical capital, financial capital, social capital, and human capital were incorporated into the SLA analysis framework, and the health poverty vulnerability of rural women of reproductive age was measured by using the three-stage feasible generalized least squares method and the Tobit model and Shapley decomposition to analyze the influencing factors of health poverty vulnerability and decompose the contribution of each influencing factor to health poverty vulnerability. Results: The health poverty status of rural women of reproductive age is not promising, with health poverty vulnerability rates for rural women of reproductive age above 20% in both 2019 and 2022 under different poverty line criteria. Shapley decomposition found that the top four contributors to health poverty vulnerability impact factors in 2019, using poverty line 1 and poverty line 2 as criteria, were household size, annual per capita household income, gift expenditure, and Respondents' self-rated health status. Using poverty line 1 and poverty line 2 as criteria, the top four contributing factors of health poverty vulnerability in 2022 are annual per capita household income, gift expenditure, respondent age, and household poverty. Conclusion: Strengthening the ex-ante intervention of health poverty among rural women of childbearing age, establishing an early warning mechanism for the risk of returning to poverty due to illness, improving the accurate identification of highly vulnerable rural women of childbearing age, and improving the medical insurance system for rural women of childbearing age can help improve the health poverty of rural women of childbearing age.