Impact of nurse staffing on reducing infant, neonatal and perinatal mortality rates: Evidence from panel data analysis in 35 OECD countries

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the magnitude of effect nurse staffing had on decreasing the newborn mortality rates in member countries of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). METHODS: The statistical technique of panel data analysis was applied to explore the possibility of association between the number of nurses’ density per 1,000 population and infant, neonatal and perinatal mortality rates (IMR, NMR and PMR) per 1000 births. The observations of 35 OECD countries were collected over the period of 2000 through 2016. RESULTS: There were significant associations between nurse staffing and IMR, NMR and PMR i.e. a 1% increase in nurse-staffing level reduced IMR, NMR and PMR by 0.98%, 0.97% and 0.96%, respectively. Furthermore, the role of nursing-related services in declining the average of newborn mortality rates were investigated at the highest level in Slovenia (−5.50), Sweden (−3.34), Iceland (−2.51), Czech Republic (−1.86), Japan (−1.64) and Finland (−1.64). Moreover, if the current relationship between nurse-staffing level and newborn mortality rates are disturbed with nursing shortage (e.g. in Slovak Republic and Israel), then it takes about 17 years for the mortality rates to reduce and restore back to the previous equilibrium. CONCLUSIONS: A higher proportion of nurses’ density per 1,000 population is associated with lower newborn mortality rates. In addition, the nursing-related services of Slovenia, Sweden, Iceland, Czech Republic, Japan and Finland with the highest impact on improving the health level of newborns would be good patterns for other developed countries in maternity and child health care .