Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Health Economics, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences
Abstract
CONTEXT: There are numerous factors which affect the health status in different ways, including
financing mechanisms, health‑care expenditures, socioeconomic characteristics, and health‑care
resources. One of the most important factors which contribute to the health status of a population
is health‑care resource which includes number of beds or health‑care professionals for instance.
AIMS: The objectives of this study were as follows: to examine the regression of the life expectancy
and health‑care inputs and also to investigate the regression of death rate and health‑care inputs.
SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study was a panel dataset analysis of OECD countries.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A generalized method of moment (GMM) regression models with
country‑level health outcomes (death rate and life expectancy) as dependent variables were estimated.
A panel dataset with n = 26 (the number of countries) and T = 12 (the number of time periods) was
used. The GMM regression model was used to estimate the effect of health‑care resources on
health outcomes.
RESULTS: Findings showed that there are strong reverse correlations between immunization rate and
number of physicians with crude rate of death (−2.64 [P < 001] and −76.50 [P < 001], respectively).
There were also positive correlations between immunization rate and number of physicians with
life expectancy at birth (0.01 [P < 001] and 1.03 [P < 001], respectively). Moreover, there were
negative correlations between inpatient rate and beds with life expectancy (−0.00003 [P < 001]
and −0.12 [P < 001], respectively).
CONCLUSIONS: It is essential for policymakers to consider the optimal level of health resource to
achieve better health outcomes. Oversupply of hospital beds and specialist doctors could lead to
induced demand and put the patients at risk of unnecessary procedures.
Keywords
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