Date of Award

May 2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice

Committee Member

Ye Luo

Committee Member

William Haller

Committee Member

Miao Li

Abstract

This thesis examined the joint effect of hukou (household registration) status and residence location on people’s satisfaction with public health services in China. It also examines the role of education level, media use (official and unofficial), perception of equality, self–rated social status, self–rated health status, public health insurance participation in the relationship between residential status and satisfaction with public health services. This thesis found that hukou status and residence location have significantly joint effect on satisfaction. Satisfaction score is the highest among those with rural residence and rural hukou, followed by urban individuals with rural hukou, with urban individuals with urban hukou having the lowest satisfaction score. Official media and self-rated social status significantly suppress the effect of residential status on satisfaction while unofficial media, perception of equality and self-rated health status significantly mediate the effect. Findings from this study provide a better understanding of inequalities in health services across hukou status and residence location and provide insights on how to utilize information on public satisfaction appropriately in formulating and evaluating health policies. The expectations–experience competing effect model used in this thesis is not fully supported by the data. More research is needed to examine whether hukou status and residence location influence expectations of health service. In addition, factors other than higher expectations might explain urban residents’ lower levels of satisfaction with public health services needs to be identified.

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