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Development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ICT development on health

BACKGROUND: In the literature, measuring health outcomes usually entails examining one dependent variable using cross-sectional data. Using a combination of mortality and morbidity variables, this study developed a new, richer measure of health outcome. Using the health outcome index, this study inv...

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Autores principales: Rana, Rezwanul Hasan, Alam, Khorshed, Gow, Jeff
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6054722/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30029607
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-018-0385-2
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author Rana, Rezwanul Hasan
Alam, Khorshed
Gow, Jeff
author_facet Rana, Rezwanul Hasan
Alam, Khorshed
Gow, Jeff
author_sort Rana, Rezwanul Hasan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In the literature, measuring health outcomes usually entails examining one dependent variable using cross-sectional data. Using a combination of mortality and morbidity variables, this study developed a new, richer measure of health outcome. Using the health outcome index, this study investigated the impacts of income inequality, levels of ethnic diversity and information and communication technology (ICT) development on health using panel data. METHODS: Partial least squares regression based on a structural equation model is used to construct a health outcome index for 30 OECD countries over the period of 2004 to 2015 using SmartPLS software. Then, panel corrected standard errors estimation and pooled ordinary least square regression with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors approaches were used to investigate the key determinants of health outcomes. Both methods are efficient when the panel data is heteroscedastic and the errors are cross-sectional dependent. RESULTS: Income inequality, level of ethnic diversity and development in ICT access and use have an adverse effect on health outcomes, however, development in ICT skills has a significant positive impact. Moreover, OECD countries with a higher percentage of publicly funded healthcare showed better public health compared to countries where the percentage is smaller. Finally, rising incomes, development of technologies and tertiary education are key determinants for improving health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that countries with higher levels of income inequality and more ethnically diverse populations have lower levels of health outcomes. Policymakers also need to recognise the adverse effect of ICT use on public health and the benefits of public healthcare expenditure. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12992-018-0385-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-60547222018-07-23 Development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ICT development on health Rana, Rezwanul Hasan Alam, Khorshed Gow, Jeff Global Health Research BACKGROUND: In the literature, measuring health outcomes usually entails examining one dependent variable using cross-sectional data. Using a combination of mortality and morbidity variables, this study developed a new, richer measure of health outcome. Using the health outcome index, this study investigated the impacts of income inequality, levels of ethnic diversity and information and communication technology (ICT) development on health using panel data. METHODS: Partial least squares regression based on a structural equation model is used to construct a health outcome index for 30 OECD countries over the period of 2004 to 2015 using SmartPLS software. Then, panel corrected standard errors estimation and pooled ordinary least square regression with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors approaches were used to investigate the key determinants of health outcomes. Both methods are efficient when the panel data is heteroscedastic and the errors are cross-sectional dependent. RESULTS: Income inequality, level of ethnic diversity and development in ICT access and use have an adverse effect on health outcomes, however, development in ICT skills has a significant positive impact. Moreover, OECD countries with a higher percentage of publicly funded healthcare showed better public health compared to countries where the percentage is smaller. Finally, rising incomes, development of technologies and tertiary education are key determinants for improving health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that countries with higher levels of income inequality and more ethnically diverse populations have lower levels of health outcomes. Policymakers also need to recognise the adverse effect of ICT use on public health and the benefits of public healthcare expenditure. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12992-018-0385-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2018-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6054722/ /pubmed/30029607 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-018-0385-2 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Rana, Rezwanul Hasan
Alam, Khorshed
Gow, Jeff
Development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ICT development on health
title Development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ICT development on health
title_full Development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ICT development on health
title_fullStr Development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ICT development on health
title_full_unstemmed Development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ICT development on health
title_short Development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ICT development on health
title_sort development of a richer measure of health outcomes incorporating the impacts of income inequality, ethnic diversity, and ict development on health
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6054722/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30029607
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-018-0385-2
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