TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study a fractional grey model FAGM(1,1,tα) based on the GM(1,1,tα) model and the fractional accumulated generating operation, and then predict the national health expenditure, the government health expenditure and the out-of-pocket health expenditure of China.Design/methodology/approach The presented univariate grey model is systematically studied by using the grey modelling technique, the fractional accumulated generating operation and the trapezoid approximation formula of definite integral. The optimal system parameters r and α are evaluated by the particle swarm optimisation algorithm.Findings The expressions of the time response function and the restored values of this model are derived. The GM(1,1), NGM(1,1,k,c) and GM(1,1,tα) models are particular cases of the FAGM(1,1,tα) model with deterministic r and α. Compared with other forecasting models, the results of the FAGM(1,1,tα) model have higher precision.Practical implications The superiority of the new model has high potential to be used in the medicine and health fields and others. Results can provide a guideline for government decision making.Originality/value The univariate fractional grey model FAGM (1,1,tα) successfully studies the China’s health expenditure. VL - 9 IS - 2 SN - 2043-9377 DO - 10.1108/GS-11-2018-0053 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/GS-11-2018-0053 AU - Wu Wenqing AU - Ma Xin AU - Zhang Yuanyuan AU - Wang Yong AU - Wu Xinxing PY - 2019 Y1 - 2019/01/01 TI - Analysis of novel FAGM(1,1,tα) model to forecast health expenditure of China T2 - Grey Systems: Theory and Application PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 232 EP - 250 Y2 - 2024/05/12 ER -