Evaluating the Immediate Response of Country-Wide Health Systems to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Applying the Gray Incidence Analysis Model

Tehmina Fiaz Qazi,Muhammad Zeeshan Shaukat,Abdul Aziz Khan Niazi,Abdul Basit

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.635121

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to evaluate county-wide health systems using the data set of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall design of study comprises a literature review, secondary data, and a mathematical analysis. It is a cross-sectional quantitative study following a deductive approach. It uses the data of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic taken from the website of Worldometer as of April 8, 2020. The study uses a gray incidence analysis model (commonly known as Gray Relational Analysis, i.e., GRA) as its research methodology. On the basis of the results of GRA, a classification has been made under a predetermined scheme of ensigns: much better, better, somewhat better, fair, poor, somewhat worse, and worse health systems. There are a total 211 countries that have been divided into the seven aforementioned categories. Findings of the study show that Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries fall predominantly under the much better ensign, whereas Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Schengen Area (SA), and/or European Union (EU) countries fall under the worse ensign. Pakistan falls under the ensign of poor. It is an original attempt to evaluate the response of health systems based on real data using a scientific methodology. The study provides valuable information about the health systems of the countries for forming an informed opinion about the health systems herein. The study provides useful new information for stakeholders and a new framework for future research.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has created serious issues for different countries, those that have weak health systems [1,2,3]
The following are the research objectives of this study: (i) to evaluate the health systems of the countries using the data set of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic; (ii) to determine the gray relational grade of countries’ health systems; (iii) to group or classify the countries on the bases of the gray relational grade under pre-determined ensigns in order to provide the basis for an informed opinion to discerners; (iv) to discuss the position of selected countries against their regional blocs; (v) to evaluate the position of Pakistan qua rest of the world in general and among Asian countries in particular; and (vi) to discuss the implications for stakeholders
The first step, in this model, is obtaining data; the second is the creation of a reference series; the third is the generation of a comparable sequence; the fourth is the generation of a reference series; the fifth is the generation of a normalized matrix; the sixth is the calculation of a deviation sequence; the seventh is the creation of absolute values with a difference in the reference sequence and comparable sequence; the eighth is the establishment of a co-efficient matrix of a gray relation system; the ninth is the computation of a gray relational grade; and the tenth step is the arrangement of these in a descending order

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has created serious issues for different countries, those that have weak health systems [1,2,3]. To address the issue of evaluation of health systems affected by the current pandemic, there is a need to develop a methodology to standardize the measurement of health systems of countries concurrently and simultaneously. The following are the research objectives of this study: (i) to evaluate the health systems of the countries using the data set of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic; (ii) to determine the gray relational grade of countries’ health systems; (iii) to group or classify the countries on the bases of the gray relational grade under pre-determined ensigns in order to provide the basis for an informed opinion to discerners; (iv) to discuss the position of selected countries against their regional blocs; (v) to evaluate the position of Pakistan qua rest of the world in general and among Asian countries in particular; and (vi) to discuss the implications for stakeholders. Keeping in view the nature of the study, GRA (Gray Incidence Analysis Model) was found to be appropriate since it has the capability to accommodate

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion