94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1553314
This article is part of the Research Topic Enhancing Public Health Workforce Competencies: AI Integration and Post-Pandemic Educational Reforms View all articles
Trends and inequality of human resource in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in China from 2019 to 2023
Provisionally accepted- 1 Institute of Medical Information, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 2 Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
The public health workforce plays a crucial role in the development of health systems, particularly in enhancing the capacity of public health infrastructure. Understanding the current status of human resources in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) is essential for defining future development goals. This study aims to assess the quantity and equity of the human resources in China's CDCs since the outbreak of COVID-19, with the goal of promoting a more equitable distribution of the CDC workforce and enhancing the capacity to respond effectively to major public health emergencies.Methods Using nationwide administrative data from China CDC (2019-2023), we conducted a twostage analysis: first, we adopted descriptive analysis to the current status and trends of the CDC workforce; second, we employed equity assessment through multilevel decomposition (1) Calculated Gini coefficients across three dimensions (geography, Gross Domestic Product per capita, population density) ; (2) Applied Theil T/L index to partition inequalities into within-region and between-region components.Between 2019 and 2023, the CDC workforce in China increased to 230,594 employees, with workforce density rising from 1.3 to 1.64 per 10,000 residents, 76.26% being health professionals, a majority of whom were female, and the 25-34 age group comprising the largest segment (29.06%). Additionally, while the proportion with less than five years of service grew, staff with over 30 years of service formed the largest tenure group (30.69%). The Gini coefficient
Keywords: Center for disease control and prevention (CDC), public health workforce, human resource, distribution, Inequality, COVID-19
Received: 30 Dec 2024; Accepted: 12 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wu, Li, Wang, Mao, Guo and Qiu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qiong Wu, Institute of Medical Information, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100020, Beijing Municipality, China
Qing Guo, Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, 102206, China
Wuqi Qiu, Institute of Medical Information, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100020, Beijing Municipality, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.