Summary Chronic disease patients have long suffered from mental health problems because of the long‐lasting and costly treatments. Although the multilevel social health insurance system in China attempts to provide them with full‐fledged health insurance coverage, the increasing prevalence of gig economy unexpectedly disrupts this situation. As the social health insurance system in China is closely associated with employment status, unemployed rural‐to‐urban migrant workers/regular urban workers have to accept the transition from urban employee basic medical insurance (UEBMI) to new cooperative medical scheme (NCMS)/urban resident basic medical insurance (URBMI). This study investigates the influence of this involuntary health insurance transition on the mental health of chronic disease patients. Empirical results show that the experience of transition from UEBMI to NCMS would significantly deteriorate the mental health of chronic disease patients, while the transition from UEBMI to URBMI would not. Accordingly, chronically ill rural‐to‐urban migrant workers are vulnerable to the involuntary health insurance transition that further deteriorates their mental health, and the multilevel social health insurance system in China cannot cope well with the emerging phenomenon of frequent employment change in labor market.

The rapid development of digital health poses a critical challenge to the personal health data protection of patients. The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) works in this context; it was passed in April 2016 and came into force in May 2018 across the European Union. This study is the first attempt to test the effectiveness of this legal reform for personal health data protection. Using the difference-in-difference (DID) approach, this study empirically examines the policy influence of the GDPR on the financial performance of hospitals across the European Union. Results show that hospitals with the digital health service suffered from financial distress after the GDPR was published in 2016. This reveals that during the transition period (2016–2018), hospitals across the European Union indeed made costly adjustments to meet the requirements of personal health data protection introduced by this new regulation, and thus inevitably suffered a policy shock to their financial performance in the short term. The implementation of GDPR may have achieved preliminary success.

This study investigates the relationship between internalized stigmatization brought on by epicenter travel experiences and mental health problems (including anxiety, depression, and shame) during the period of the novel coronavirus disease emergency in China. The cross-sectional data were collected using the time-lag design to avoid the common method bias as much as possible. Regression results using structural equation modeling show that the internalized stigmatization of epicenter travel experiences may have positive relationships with mental health problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, and shame), and such relationships can be moderated by social support. Specifically, the positive relationships between internalized stigmatization and mental health problems are buffered/strengthened when social support is at a high/low level. The findings of this study suggest that, in this epidemic, people who have epicenter travel experience could be affected by internalized stigmatization, no matter whether they have ever got infected.

No abstract

Background The deepening population aging is urging policy makers to launch delayed retirement initiative, when the society is faced with unprecedented challenges of shrinking labor supply, heavier pension burdens and slowing economic growth. However, the health outcomes of late retirees receive scarce attention due to the intrinsic identification difficulties (i.e., (1) self-selection bias – older adults with predetermined ill-health are less likely to delay retirement. (2) there can be situations where the status of late retirement has terminated at the time of interview, although he/she has ever delayed retirement). To fill in this research gap, this study examines the effect of late retirement on the difficulty in physical functioning and problems of cognitive status among older adults. Method Using the data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS-2015 harmonized, and CHARLS-2018), this study investigates the influence of late retirement (year 2015) on the difficulty in physical functioning and problems of cognitive status (year 2018) among older adults. A series of robustness checks are also conducted. Results Empirical results show that late retirement is associated with better physical functioning and cognitive status. The influence remains robust after considering potential self-selection bias and the sensitivity of including/excluding older adults who have past late retirement experience but have no longer been late retirees at the time of survey. Conclusion This study suggests that older adults might benefit from the engagement in late careers in their physical and cognitive functioning.

Job tenure has been significantly shortened with the prevalence of the gig economy around the world. Workers are faced with a new age of frequent employment change. This emerging situation is out of expectation of social health insurance policymakers. As the multi-level social health insurance system in China is closely associated with employment status; urban workers cannot enjoy the urban employee basic medical insurance (UEBMI) during the unemployment period. At this time, unemployed rural-to-urban migrant workers can only rely on the new cooperative medical scheme (NCMS) and unemployed urban residents can only rely on the urban resident basic medical insurance (URBMI). This study provides a preliminary analysis on healthcare utilization change triggered by the unemployment-induced social health insurance transition that has never been investigated. Using the data of a nationwide survey, empirical results show that the unemployment-induced social health insurance transition can significantly deteriorate the healthcare utilization of insurance beneficiaries experiencing the transitions from the UEBMI to the NCMS (or from the UEBMI to the URBMI). Specifically, the outpatient service quality and the conventional physical examination become worse, and the out-of-pocket expenditure increases. Therefore, the multi-level social health insurance system currently in effect can expose workers to a high risk of insufficient health security in the age of frequent employment change.

Background The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) declares the airline transport regulation in January 2020 to help retard the spread of the novel coronavirus disease in China. This study is to examine the effect of airline transport regulation on confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease in megacities in China. Methods This study combines the multi-source data from the health data platform DXY, the airline data platform Airsavvi, the China Economic Internet Statistical Database and the China Railway website. The megacities whose airports have a passenger throughput of over 30 million per year (11 megacities: Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Kunming, Xi'an, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Nanjing) are included in the analysis. The regression analysis is conducted in this study. Results The curvilinear relationship between the limitation on air traffic and confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease is identified (coefficient of the linear term = −4.650, p -value < 0.01; coefficient of the quadratic term = 4.089, p -value < 0.01). Conclusions This study confirms the effectiveness of airline transport regulation in suppressing the development of this pandemic. The limitation on air traffic is found to negatively affect the confirmed cases in China's megacities. However, such effect marginally recedes as the strength of limitation intensifies. It suggests that comprehensive policy intervention is in need and air traffic can be one of important determinants that affect the epidemic development.

This article examines the organization phenomenon of coercive acquaintance advertising, which is born of social media context and emerging in tourism and hospitality industry. Empirical results analyzing the multisource and time-lagged data collected from 358 travel agency employees provide general support for our hypotheses. Specifically, this article finds that the practice of coercive acquaintance advertising leads employees to suffer from interrole conflict arising from being a worker and “friend” simultaneously on their personal social media networks, which in turn can affect their job performance, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. In addition, such mediation process can be strengthened by the high-level of employee’s feedback sensitivity such that there is the moderated mediation mechanism in the relationships between coercive acquaintance advertising and employee work outcomes. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for researchers and practitioners.