ABSTRACT
Since China began its reform and opening to the outside world, rapid economic growth has not only elevated the living standards of people in both urban and rural areas, but also sharply decreased the number of people in poverty. In the late 1980s, the rate of poverty in rural areas of China started to fall at a decreasing pace, especially from the middle of the 1980s to the middle of the 1990s. Historically, poverty has been deemed a result of backward economies. In the last 100 years, the world's rate of poverty has continually decreased due to economic development. An effective method for poverty alleviation in the short term is to raise the income level of the poor. In gaining an increasingly profound understanding of poverty, people have also pondered how to help the poor escape poverty as quickly and effectively as possible. Disease is an important dimension and cause of poverty.
