Quality of Primary Healthcare and Family Antibiotic Consumption in Rural China: A Machine-Learning Approach

Speaker: Yunwei Chen, Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions

Inappropriate antibiotic use presents a unique challenge to global health. Despite the widespread practice of limiting antibiotic use through doctor-prescribed prescriptions in developed countries, this approach may not be effective in resource-limited settings where providers are unable to prescribe effectively. Investing in quality primary healthcare may offer an effective alternative to promoting effective antibiotic dispensing in community settings, but evidence remains limited and few studies are devoted to these settings. Using extensive data collected from approximately 100 rural villages in remote areas of Yunnan Province in southwest China, this paper investigates how the practicing quality of village providers affects family antibiotic consumption. Provider quality was assessed through unannounced clinical visits by standardized patients presenting consistent conditions, which were then linked to antibiotic consumption data obtained from household surveys in the same villages. We identified causal effects using the newly developed double/debiased machine learning approach, by leveraging extensive information collected from village providers to approximate the optimal instrument, using a variety of machine learning algorithms. Our analysis indicates that improving the practicing quality of village doctors significantly reduced inappropriate family use of antibiotics in remote rural areas of China.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays starting at 12 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present.