Online medical crowdfunding helps patients raise funds for medical expenses through small donations from a large number of donors thus it plays an important role in treating major diseases and alleviating poverty. However, limited attention has been paid to the poverty alleviation effect of online medical crowdfunding. Using a panel dataset of 301 administrative units at the prefecture level and above in China from 2016 to 2020, this study empirically investigates the direct impact of online medical crowdfunding on regional poverty rates. In addition, this study explores the moderating role of health poverty alleviation policies and regional economic development level. The findings reveal that online medical crowdfunding has a significant effect on alleviating poverty. The implementation of health poverty alleviation policies weakens the poverty alleviation effect, while regional economic development does not appear to moderate this effect. This study offers important theoretical contributions and practical implications for poverty alleviation and online crowdfunding.
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Wu et al. (2026) studied this question.
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