%0 Journal Article
%T Providing financial incentives to rural-to-urban tuberculosis migrants in Shanghai: an intervention study
%A Xiaolin Wei
%A Guanyang Zou
%A Jia Yin
%A John Walley
%A Huaixia Yang
%A Merav Kliner
%A Jian Mei
%J Infectious Diseases of Poverty
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/2049-9957-1-9
%X Ninety and ninety-three migrant TB patients were registered in the intervention and control districts respectively. TB treatment completion rates significantly improved by 11% (from 78% to 89%) in the intervention district, compared with only a 3% increase (from 73% to 76%) in the control district (P = 0.03). Default rates significantly decreased by 11% (from 22% to 11%) in the intervention district, compared with 1% (from 24% to 23%) in the control district (P = 0.03). In the intervention district, the financial subsidy (RMB 1,080/US$170) accounted for 13% of the average patient direct cost (RMB 8,416/US$1,332). Each percent increase in treatment completion costs required an additional RMB 6,550 (US$1,301) and each percent reduction in defaults costs required an additional RMB 5,240 (US$825) in the intervention district.Overall, financial incentives proved to be effective in improving treatment completion and reducing default rates among migrant TB patients in Shanghai. The results suggest that financial incentives can be effectively utilized as a strategy to enhance case management among migrant TB patients in large cities in China, and this strategy may be applicable to similar international settings.Please see Additional File 1 for translations of the abstract in six official working languages of the United Nations.China has the second largest TB burden in the world, with the prevalence of active TB cases in rural areas twice that of urban areas [1]. Increasing population mobility has become one of the major challenges in TB control, especially with more than 200 million people moving from rural areas to more prosperous urban areas in recent years [2]. The Chinese residency permits system is one where each newborn child is assigned a record known as a hukou, which is in accordance with the residence status of the child's parents. Local financing of public services is allocated according to the number of hukou holders in the particular local area migrants are thu
%K Public health
%K Tuberculosis
%K Domestic migrants
%K Poverty
%K Financial incentive
%K Treatment completion
%K Effectiveness
%U http://www.idpjournal.com/content/1/1/9