scholarly journals The Effect of Healthcare Expenditure on the Health Outcomes in Sub-Saharan African Countries

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Xing Weibo ◽  
Birhanu Yimer
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcome ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

Health is a major component for a fulfilled life that everyone in the world desires to acquire. Governments are expected to play a vital role in providing quality health service to their people. Even though an increased health care expenditure is mostly considered as a primary contributor for an improved health outcome, empirical studies however indicate controversial results. The primary objective of this paper is to examine the effect of health expenditure on the selected health outcomes (Life Expectancy, Infant Mortality, Under-Five Mortality and Crude death) in Sub Saharan Africa. The linear dynamic generalized method of moments instrumental variable (GMM-IV) was used on a panel of 39 Sub-Saharan African Countries for the years 1995-2014. Results of this study showed that health expenditure significantly improves life expectancy and lowers infant mortality, under-five mortality & crude death in Sub Saharan Africa. The separate effects of Public and private health expenditures have also shown a significant positive relationship on life expectancy and negative on infant mortality, under-five mortality & crude death. The one period lag of health expenditure was estimated and the regression results indicated statistically significant relationship with health outcomes. In addition to health expenditure, other determinants like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, urbanization, immunization and basic drinking water brought improvement on life expectancy, infant mortality, under-five mortality & crude death. In contrast, HIV prevalence and unemployment are factors that reduce life expectancy and increase infant mortality, under-five mortality & crude death. This study indicated that health expenditure is an important element in attaining improved health outcome in Sub-Saharan African Countries. Therefore, increasing the amount of health expenditure allocated to the health sector yields a better health status. More on, revising policies to improve GDP per capita, immunization, urbanization and basic drinking water service, and strategies intended to reduce HIV prevalence and unemployment assure a better health outcome.

scholarly journals The Impact of Health Expenditures on Health Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Nketiah-Amponsah
Keyword(s):  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Maternal Mortality ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Health Expenditures ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

This article investigates the core macroeconomic and social determinants of health expenditures as well as the effect of health expenditures on select critical health outcomes (life expectancy, under-five mortality and maternal mortality) in recent years in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study utilizes data on 46 sub-Saharan African countries covering the period 2000–2015. The results indicate that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, physician per 1,000 population, population aged above 65 years and under-five mortality rate are the most significant determinants of health expenditure in the region. Overall, health expenditure is less income-elastic, not rising as a portion of GDP in wealthier nations. Health expenditure was found to exert a positive and significant impact on all three health outcomes. Specifically, a 1 percent increase in health expenditure per capita resulted in a 0.5 percent reduction in under-five mortality and a 0.35 percent fall in maternal mortality, while improving life expectancy by 0.06 percent. The results suggest that steady increases in health expenditures over time have the tendency to improve health outcomes in SSA.

Does economic freedom improve health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa?

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 1633-1649
Author(s):  
Anand Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Economic Freedom ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of economic freedom on four key health indicators (namely, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate) by using a panel dataset of 34 sub-Saharan African countries from 2005 to 2016.Design/methodology/approachThe study obtains data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank and the Fraser Institute. It uses fixed effects regression to estimate the effect of economic freedom on health outcomes and attempts to resolve the endogeneity problems by using two-stage least squares regression (2SLS).FindingsThe results indicate a favourable impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. That is, higher levels of economic freedom reduce mortality rates and increase life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa. All areas of economic freedom, except government size, have a significant and positive effect on health outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThis study analyses the effect of economic freedom on health at a broad level. Country-specific studies at a disaggregated level may provide additional information about the impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. Also, this study does not control for some important variables such as education, income inequality and foreign aid due to data constraints.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that sub-Saharan African countries should focus on enhancing the quality of economic institutions to improve their health outcomes. This may include policy reforms that support a robust legal system, protect property rights, promote free trade and stabilise the macroeconomic environment. In addition, policies that raise urbanisation, increase immunisation and lower the incidence of HIV are likely to produce a substantial improvement in health outcomes.Originality/valueExtant economic freedom-health literature does not focus on endogeneity problems. This study uses instrumental variables regression to deal with endogeneity. Also, this is one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the relationship between economic freedom and health in the case of sub-Saharan Africa.

On African Responsibility for Economic Problems

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-53
Author(s):  
Richard E. Mshomba
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
High Infant Mortality ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Poor Infrastructure

African countries, like many other developing countries, suffer the problems associated with poverty—malnutrition, poor health services, high infant mortality rates, low life expectancy, high illiteracy rates, poor infrastructure, and inadequate technology. These problems are especially severe in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa: Is it mean reversion? A Fourier unit root test approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
Gbenga A. Olalude ◽  
Hammed A. Olayinka ◽  
Oluwadare O. Ojo
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcome ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Unit Root ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Unit Root Test ◽  
Mean Reversion ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan

The aim of the paper is to examine the mean reversion in health expenditure of 45 sub-Saharan African countries. The series on current health expenditure (percent of GDP in total), obtained from the World Development Indicators, each spanned the years 2000–2017. We employed the Fourier unit root test, which allows modelling structural breaks, to deal with any such breaks that could arise as a result of a small sample size (18 years) of data available on health expenditure of the selected countries. The results showed evidence of mean reversion in the health spending pattern of 27 sub-Saharan African countries. There is evidence of nonmean reversion in the health expenditure pattern of the remaining 18 countries considered. We further investigate the link between health expenditure and health outcome, using infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rate as health outcome variables. An inverse association could be observed between the infant mortality rate and health expenditure and between the under-five mortality rate and health expenditure in 24 sub-Saharan African countries. On the other hand, in 13 other sub-Saharan African countries we observed a positive association between the variables. The findings of this study could be of great importance to healthcare delivery programmes in the studied countries.

scholarly journals The effect of the quality of institutions on the relationship between public health expenditure and the infant mortality rate: evidence from the PVAR (X) and PSTR approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-35
Author(s):  
Arthur Evariste KOUASSI ◽  
Ya Assanhoun Guillaume KOUASSI ◽  
Nogbou Andetchi Aubin AMANZOU
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Infant Mortality Rate ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Institutional Variables ◽  
Public Health Expenditure ◽  
Sub Saharan

Infant mortality is a major health problem in developing countries. It is an important indicator of a country's public health as it goes hand in hand with socio-economic conditions and many others. Public health spending has been committed to reducing this scourge. This has led to the completion of numerous studies which have yielded mixed results. The main objective of this study is to test the effect of public health expenditure (% GDP) on the infant mortality rate, taking into account the role that institutional quality can play. To achieve this, we use two approaches which are the autoregressive vector panel model with exogenous variables (PVAR (X)) and the smooth threshold regression model (PSTR) on annual data covering the period 2002-2016 and covering 37 African countries. Sub-Saharan. Our main results through the PVAR (X) reveal that in the absence of institutional variables, public health expenditure has a negative and significant effect on the infant mortality rate, whereas, in the presence of the various institutional variables, this effect is still negative but is no longer significant. Our results show that the presence of institutions halves the weight of public health expenditure in explaining the infant mortality rate. In addition, our results show through the PSTR that there is a certain level of institutional qualities that these countries must achieve for public health expenditure to positively affect infant mortality rates. These thresholds oscillate for all the institutional variables around 7%. Taking institutional variables into account will help reduce infant mortality in Sub-Saharan African countries.

scholarly journals HIV/AIDS and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danjuma Maijama'a ◽  
Shamzaeffa Samsudin ◽  
Shazida jan Mohd Khan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Growth Equation ◽  
Solow Model ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan

<p>This study investigates the effects of the HIV and AIDS epidemic on economic growth in 42<br />sub-Saharan African countries using data spanning from 1990-2013. Unlike previous studies,<br />we use a longer data horizon and take the time lag effect of the epidemic’s incubation period<br />that is, after it might have developed to AIDS into consideration in our estimations. We<br />estimated an empirical growth equation within an augmented Solow model and applied the<br />dynamic system GMM estimator. The results suggest that current HIV prevalence rate –<br />associated with rising morbidity, has a negative effect on GDP per capita growth, conversely<br />AIDS – associated with higher mortality in addition to morbidity, increases per capita GDP<br />growth.</p>

scholarly journals Relationship between Public Debt Burden and Health Expenditure in Sub-Saharan African Countries: The Role of Institutional Quality

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rusmawati Said ◽  
Abdullahi Sani Morai
Keyword(s):  
Public Debt ◽  
Health Expenditure ◽  
Institutional Quality ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Public ◽  
Debt Burden ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Relationship

The historically lower level of public health expenditure of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries could be partly explained by the mounting debt burden of this region. This consumes a sizable proportion of their domestic resources to debt servicing and potentially decreases their overall budgetary allocations to various sectors in the economy and health expenditure in particular. Using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach on a sample of 43 sub-Saharan African countries, we examined the relationship between the public debt burden and health expenditure highlighting the role of institutional quality for the period 2000 – 2014. The empirical result confirms that the relationship between public debt burden and health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa is negative. Interestingly, however, the marginal effect of the relationship between the public debt burden and health expenditure has shown that such a negative relationship turns out to be positive when the quality of the institutions is at maximum. This suggests that the relationship between the public debt burden and health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa is a function of institutional quality.  Therefore, to minimize the negative impact of public debt on health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa, governments should take determine stand to minimize its debt accumulation and intensify efforts toward the improvement of institutional quality in the region comprehensively.

scholarly journals Diarrhea and associated factors among under five children in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from demographic and health surveys of 34 sub-Saharan countries

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257522
Author(s):  
Getu Debalkie Demissie ◽  
Yigizie Yeshaw ◽  
Wallelign Aleminew ◽  
Yonas Akalu
Keyword(s):  
Associated Factors ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
Wealth Index ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Under Five Children ◽  
Sub Saharan

Introduction Diarrhea is responsible for the death of more than 90% of under-five children in low and lower-middle income countries. Regionally, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 88% of deaths with the same age group. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of diarrhea among children under-five years in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods The appended, most recent demographic and health survey datasets of 34 sub-Saharan African countries were used to determine the prevalence and associated factors of diarrhea among under-five children in the region. A total weighted sample of 330,866 under-five children were included in the study. Both bivariable and multivariable multilevel logistic regression were done to determine the associated factors of diarrhea among under five children in sub-Saharan Africa. The Odds Ratio (OR) with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was calculated for those potential factors included in the final model. Result The overall prevalence of diarrhea in this study was 15.3% (95% CI: 15.1–15.4). Those children of mothers aged 15–24 (AOR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.23, 1.30) and 25–34 years (AOR = 1.15; 95%CI: 1.12, 1.18), those children of mothers with no education (AOR = 1.69; 95%CI: 1.57–1.82), primary education (AOR = 1.73; 95%CI: 1.61–1.86) and secondary education (AOR = 1.49; 95%CI: 1.38–1.59) had higher odds of having diarrhea. Those children from poorest (AOR = 1.14; 95%CI: 1.10, 1.19), poorer (AOR = 1.12; 95%CI: 1.08–1.17), middle (AOR = 1.06; 95%CI: 1.02, 1.10), and richer (AOR = 1.14; 95%CI: 1.04–1.12) households had higher chance of having diarrhea compared to their counterparts. Conclusion This study found that the prevalence of childhood diarrhea morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa was high. Maternal age, wealth index, maternal education, maternal occupation, age of child, time of initiation of breast feeding and time to get water source were significantly associated with diarrhea. Therefore, intervention through health education and health promotion for mothers/caretakers who are poor, less educated, and young should be designed to prevent diarrhea in the region.

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