Health Infrastructure and Health Indicators: The Case of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

The paper calculates the elasticity coefficients of health indicators with respect to health infrastructure of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India during 1980-2010. A health infrastructure index is developed using health inputs like number of hospitals and dispensaries, number of beds and number of doctors in government hospitals. Double log simple regression model is used to estimate elasticity coefficients. The empirical result shows that the elasticity coefficients of health indicators like crude birth rate, crude death rate, infant mortality rate and life expectancy at birth with respect to health infrastructure are -37.966, -27.816, - 30.598 and 10.282 respectively. Values of R 2 confirm that 70 percent of the variation in all most all health indicators is explained by health infrastructure. Thus, public health facilities are crucial for meeting the basic health requirements of masses in the state.