Impact of Gender Inequalities in the Causes of Mortality on the Competitiveness of OECD Countries.

Beata Gavurova,Martin Rigelsky,Ladislav Suhanyi,Viera Ivankova

doi:10.3390/ijerph17103698

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to quantify the relations between gender inequalities in mortality by selected causes of mortality and between competitiveness of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Data for the analyses were obtained from OECD databases and the World Economic Forum (Global Competitiveness Index), for the years 2011–2016, for all 36 countries. The methods of descriptive analysis, analysis of differences in causes of mortality by gender characteristics, regression analysis, relationship analysis of gender inequalities in causes of mortality and competitiveness, and cluster analysis were used for the statistical data processing. Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that gender inequality occurs in most of the examined mortality groups of diagnoses, while it was most significant in the case of mortality due to neoplasms. The impacts of mortality on competitiveness are significant. In assessing gender inequalities in causes of mortality, significant impacts were seen in most mortality causes, but the most significant impact was identified within mortality due to neoplasms. Emphasis should be placed on men when reducing inequalities. Health and health equity should be supported by national governments, and health equity should be one of the key performance indicators of the country.

Highlights

Good health is a major source of economic and social development, improving population health and reducing health inequalities represent one of the strategic objectives of the Health 2020 [1].Substantial inequality in health is visible within the population divided into different groups according to income, education, gender or migrant status [2]
The indicators of the causes of mortality (CM) consisted of 13 variables and we focused on: certain infectious and parasitic diseases (INFC), neoplasms (CNCR), diseases of the blood and blood forming organs (BLOD), endocrine nutritional and metabolic diseases (MTBL), mental and behavioral disorders (MNTL), diseases of the nervous system (NRVS), diseases of the circulatory system (CRCL), diseases of the respiratory system (RSPT), diseases of the digestive system (DGST), diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue (SKIN), diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (MSCL), diseases of the genitourinary system (GNTR), and certain conditions originating in the perinatal period (PRNT)
Based on the outputs in this table, the most positive values of Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) can be identified in Germany, Finland, Netherlands and the United States and the most negative value was found in Greece

Summary

Introduction

Good health is a major source of economic and social development, improving population health and reducing health inequalities represent one of the strategic objectives of the Health 2020 [1].Substantial inequality in health is visible within the population divided into different groups according to income, education, gender or migrant status [2]. Given the close relationship between public health and the processes of economic, social, and technological change [5], some opinions claim that reducing health inequalities can be beneficial for achieving development goals and for the overall economic progress of countries [6,7,8,9]. This implies that health inequalities should be among the main criteria in discussions on the sustainable development of countries, and policy makers should focus on reducing health inequalities with the purpose of reaching economic benefits [5]. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the relations between gender inequalities in health and between competitiveness in developed Organisation for

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion