title: Health-related quality of life and health service utilization in Chinese rural-to-urban migrant workers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The number of rural-to-urban migrant workers has been increasing rapidly in China over recent decades, but there is a scarcity of data on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and health service utilization among Chinese rural-to-urban migrant workers in comparison to local urban residents. We aimed to address this question.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional study of 2315 rural-to-urban migrant workers and 2347 local urban residents in the Shenzhen-Dongguan economic zone (China) in 2013. Outcomes included HRQOL (measured by Health Survey Short Form 36) and health service utilization (self-reported).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to local urban residents, rural-to-urban migrant workers had lower scores in all domains of HRQOL, and were more likely to report chronic illnesses (9.2% vs. 6.0%, adjusted OR = 1.62, 95% CI 1.28-2.04) and recent two-week morbidity (21.3% vs. 5.0%, adjusted OR = 5.41, 95% CI 4.26-6.88). Among individuals who reported sickness in the recent two weeks, migrant workers were much less likely to see a doctor (32.7% vs. 66.7%, adjusted OR = 0.21, 95% CI 0.13-0.36).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Chinese rural-to-urban migrant workers have lower HRQOL, much more frequent morbidity, but are also much less likely to see a doctor in times of sickness as compared to local urban residents, indicating the existence of significant unmet medical care needs in this population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510182, China. chuhong688@163.com.|Institute of Public Health, School of Nursing, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China. chuhong688@163.com.
authors.forename: Chu-Hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xin Hua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao-Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China. zhongcheng_luo3@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhong-Cheng
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510182, China. wjiaji@163.com.
authors.forename: Jia-Ji
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Community Health Services Center of Liaobu, Dongguan 523401, China. edwardzjh@163.com.
authors.forename: Jian-Hu
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510182, China. peixi001@163.com.|Institute of Public Health, School of Nursing, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China. peixi001@163.com.
authors.forename: Pei-Xi
authors.initials: PX
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002947:Cities; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014171:Transients and Migrants