Integrating spatial technology into studying the generational differences of migrants’ health protection status in urban China

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to investigate differences on health protection status between two generations (born pre- vs. post- 1980) of rural-to-urban migrants in China, and whether the differences are associated with spatial contexts. METHODS: Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) approach was used to recruit migrants in Chengdu city from September 2008 to July 2009. All migrants’ residences were geo-coded on the map. Hepatitis B Vaccination serves as a surrogate for the Health protection status. Logistic regression was used to explore the association between independent variables and the Hepatitis B vaccination status. Spatial scan statistics were used to explore the spatial pattern of the Hepatitis B vaccination status. RESULTS: Among the 1045 rural-to-urban migrants, higher education, better employment condition and post-80 generation are positively associated with the Hepatitis B vaccination status, while marriage status, the insurance status and the income are not. The spatial scan statistics identified three spatial clusters of low vaccination rate. Two of them were in urban villages and the other was a declining workers’ community. CONCLUSIONS: The migrant population is heterogeneous, and the post-80 generation migrants get more health protection. Spatial analytical techniques illustrated clusters of low vaccination rate are highly linked with pre-1980 generation migrants and other socioeconomic factors, especially the employment condition. Such information might shed light on the differences and needs across migrant subgroups and may be useful for developing more targeted health policies for Chinese migrants.