ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1639687
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Outcomes: The Role of Social Security Systems in Improving Residents' Health Welfare, Volume IIView all 4 articles
Who determines Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma inpatients' medical expenditure? Importance factor ranking using the Random Forest Model
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Humanities and Social Science, Guangxi Medical University, Guangxi, China, Nanning, China
- 2Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Guangxi, China, Nanning, China
- 3Guangxi Maternal and Child Health Hospital,Guangxi, China, Nanning, China
- 4Guangxi Hospital Associationy, Guangxi, China, Nanning, China
- 5Nursing College, Guangxi Medical University, Guangxi, China, Nanning, China
- 6School of Humanities and Social Science(School of Public Administration), Beihang University, Beijing, China, Nanning, China
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Background: Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is a malignant epithelial tumor most commonly in China. In 2013, NPC incidence and mortality in China were also at high levels worldwide, which poses a great health burden in China. This study analyzes the medical expenditure and influencing factors of inpatients with NPC and aims to provide reference suggestions for reducing medical expenditure for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Methods: Based on the data of the western area China hospitals, we use the Random Forest model to find the important factors in total medical expenditure, out-of-pocket costs, and the rates of out-of-pocket costs.Results: Total medical expenditure, out-of-pocket costs, and the rates of out-of-pocket costs were decreased. According to the indicators of InNodePurti and %IncMSE, the top three influencing factors of total medical expenditure and out-of-pocket costs are Length of stay, Medical payment method, and Readmission status; the top three influencing factors of the rates of out-of-pocket costs are Medical payment method, Occupation, and Age.Conclusion: Length of stay was an important factor in total medical expenditure and out-of-pocket costs, and the medical payment method was an important factor in the rates of out-of-pocket costs. To reduce the burden of NPC patients’ medical expenditure, 1) we can reduce the length of stay by improving the level of medical technology; 2) increasing government medical expenditures and improving the level of medical security; 3)promoting smoking bans, and strengthening screening in high-risk areas.
Keywords: Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC), Total medical expenditure, Out-of-pocket costs, the rates of out-of-pocket costs, random forest model
Received: 02 Jun 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhu, Zhang, Huang, Wei, Zhu, Zeng and Nong. 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: Jingya Nong, School of Humanities and Social Science(School of Public Administration), Beihang University, Beijing, China, Nanning, China
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