Inequality of Health Spending and Public Health Outcome in Countries of the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO)

Assari-Arani Abbas,Ahmadi Ali Mohammad,Meskarpour-Amiri Mohammad

doi:10.20286/ijtmgh-030479

Abstract

Introduction: There are little attention about health spending and public health outcomes especially in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. This paper presents an overview on health spending and public health outcomes in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean countries during 1995-2011. Methods: This study conducted in 2013 use of health expenditure and public health outcome of 19 WHOs Eastern Mediterranean Region countries during 17 years (1995-2011). Data were including: Per capita health expenditure in current US dollar, Life expectancy at birth, Infant Mortality Rate per 1,000 live births, Under-5 years Mortality Rate per 1,000 live births. Data collected from the latest World Bank published data until 2013. The Descriptive statistics were used to study by using Excel 2007. Results: In this region, the minimum spending on health (by Pakistan) was about 60 times less than maximum spending (by Qatar). Maximum amount of infant and children mortality rate were respectively 9 and 10 times more than the minimum. Also a decreasing returns to scale of health spending seen between countries. So that countries with better public health status need to pay much more than countries with poor public health status to increase 1 year life expectancy or to save 1 infant or child from premature death. Conclusion: There is a large inequality among countries of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region in both health spending and public health outcomes. Due to a decreasing return to scale, allocation financial aids to countries with poor health status can help converging health status in the region and decrease inequalities.

Highlights

There are little attention about health spending and public health outcomes especially in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region
This paper presents a cross-country comparison on health spending and public health outcomes in countries affiliated to the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) during 17 years, to provide important insights into policies that improve health system performance and outcomes in this region
Our general findings confirm that higher level of health spending is associated with higher public health outcomes. These results suggest that countries interested in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should consider expanding total public and private health spending as an effective mechanism to decrease infant and child mortality and increase life expectancy

Summary

Introduction

There are little attention about health spending and public health outcomes especially in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. A significant improvement experienced in mothers and child health indicators (such as maternal, infant and under five-year child mortality rates) in the region [2, 3] These gains can be attributed to a number of factors, including better education, nutrition, sanitation, housing as well as greater access to health services [4, 5]. A recent study by Joumard [9] in 2010 showed that an increase of total health spending is the possible reason for at least 40% of improvements in life expectancy since 1990 This fact should be considered that health spending is necessary for analyzing any public health achievements cross-countries

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion