Telehealth, medical decisions and new health inequality in China
Telehealth is still underutilized in China's actual healthcare services, and use of telehealth is more likely to be seen among younger, higher-income, and well-educated groups. The use of telehealth may lead residents to skip primary health care more easily and occupy secondary and tertiary health care inappropriately. It maybe impacts China's hierarchical medical system, and further leading to new potential health inequalities due to the "digital divide".
Authors
- Lijie Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2425-6946)
- Zhaopeng Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6476-9001)
- Lufa Zhang
- Zhixin Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4514-795X)
- W J Gu
Institutions
- Tongji University (CN)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital (CN)
- Community Health Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BMC Public Health
- Published
- 2025-02-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-22039-1
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.51
Funders
- National Social Science Fund of China