Status of village health personnel in poverty-stricken minority counties, Guizhou province

Objective To describe the situation of village health personnel(VHP)in poverty-stricken minority counties.Methods Acrosssectional survey was conducted among 172 VHP at 77 village clinics in Puanminority county,Guizhou province in January 2010.Results The age of the VHP was from 22 to 68 years,with anaverage of 39 years.About 98.8% of respondents did not have anytechnical title;81.4% of the VHP were village doctors with occupational qualification and 18.6% were assistant doctor.For all VHP,86.7% completed technical secondary school or relevant certificate education;1.2% had junior college or above education,and 12.2% had no vocational education.There was anaverage of 0.48 village doctor or assistant doctor per 1 000 rural population,which was significantly lower than the average level of Guizhou province,the western areas of China,and China(P<0.01),respectively.Respondents reported anaverage monthly income of 1 250 RMB yuan,which was lower than that of village teachers at the primary school.All respondents did not have any endowment insurances,but had new type of rural cooperative medical care system with their own payment.Lorenz curve of VHP distribution was close to absolute equity line.Conclusion VHP in Puan minority county was in a short age with anolder age structure and a lower technical qualification.VHP distribution showed a good equity among towns in the county.