When Covid-19 first struck: Analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy

CONTEXT: The Covid-19 pandemic hit the developed world differentially due to accidental factors, and countries had to respond rapidly within existing resources, structures, and processes to manage totally new health challenges. This study aimed to identify which pre-existing structural factors facil...

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Autores principales: Rigby, Michael J., Zdunek, Kinga, Pecoraro, Fabrizio, Cellini, Marco, Luzi, Daniela
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8489721/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34606508
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257757
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author Rigby, Michael J.
Zdunek, Kinga
Pecoraro, Fabrizio
Cellini, Marco
Luzi, Daniela
author_facet Rigby, Michael J.
Zdunek, Kinga
Pecoraro, Fabrizio
Cellini, Marco
Luzi, Daniela
author_sort Rigby, Michael J.
collection PubMed
description CONTEXT: The Covid-19 pandemic hit the developed world differentially due to accidental factors, and countries had to respond rapidly within existing resources, structures, and processes to manage totally new health challenges. This study aimed to identify which pre-existing structural factors facilitated better outcomes despite different starting points, as understanding of the relative impact of structural aspects should facilitate achieving optimal forward progress. METHODS: Desk study, based on selecting and collecting a range of measures for 48 representative characteristics of 42 countries’ demography, society, health system, and policy-making profiles, matched to three pandemic time points. Different analytic approaches were employed including correlation, multiple regression, and cluster analysis in order to seek triangulation. FINDINGS: Population structure (except country size), and volume and nature of health resources, had only minor links to Covid impact. Depth of social inequality, poverty, population age structure, and strength of preventive health measures unexpectedly had no moderating effect. Strongest measured influences were population current enrolment in tertiary education, and country leaders’ strength of seeking scientific evidence. The representativeness, and by interpretation the empathy, of government leadership also had positive effects. CONCLUSION: Strength of therapeutic health system, and indeed of preventive health services, surprisingly had little correlation with impact of the pandemic in the first nine months measured in death- or case-rates. However, specific political system features, including proportional representation electoral systems, and absence of a strong single party majority, were consistent features of the most successful national responses, as was being of a small or moderate population size, and with tertiary education facilitated. It can be interpreted that the way a country was lead, and whether leadership sought evidence and shared the reasoning behind resultant policies, had notable effects. This has significant implications within health system development and in promoting the population’s health.
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spelling pubmed-84897212021-10-05 When Covid-19 first struck: Analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy Rigby, Michael J. Zdunek, Kinga Pecoraro, Fabrizio Cellini, Marco Luzi, Daniela PLoS One Research Article CONTEXT: The Covid-19 pandemic hit the developed world differentially due to accidental factors, and countries had to respond rapidly within existing resources, structures, and processes to manage totally new health challenges. This study aimed to identify which pre-existing structural factors facilitated better outcomes despite different starting points, as understanding of the relative impact of structural aspects should facilitate achieving optimal forward progress. METHODS: Desk study, based on selecting and collecting a range of measures for 48 representative characteristics of 42 countries’ demography, society, health system, and policy-making profiles, matched to three pandemic time points. Different analytic approaches were employed including correlation, multiple regression, and cluster analysis in order to seek triangulation. FINDINGS: Population structure (except country size), and volume and nature of health resources, had only minor links to Covid impact. Depth of social inequality, poverty, population age structure, and strength of preventive health measures unexpectedly had no moderating effect. Strongest measured influences were population current enrolment in tertiary education, and country leaders’ strength of seeking scientific evidence. The representativeness, and by interpretation the empathy, of government leadership also had positive effects. CONCLUSION: Strength of therapeutic health system, and indeed of preventive health services, surprisingly had little correlation with impact of the pandemic in the first nine months measured in death- or case-rates. However, specific political system features, including proportional representation electoral systems, and absence of a strong single party majority, were consistent features of the most successful national responses, as was being of a small or moderate population size, and with tertiary education facilitated. It can be interpreted that the way a country was lead, and whether leadership sought evidence and shared the reasoning behind resultant policies, had notable effects. This has significant implications within health system development and in promoting the population’s health. Public Library of Science 2021-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8489721/ /pubmed/34606508 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257757 Text en © 2021 Rigby et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rigby, Michael J.
Zdunek, Kinga
Pecoraro, Fabrizio
Cellini, Marco
Luzi, Daniela
When Covid-19 first struck: Analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy
title When Covid-19 first struck: Analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy
title_full When Covid-19 first struck: Analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy
title_fullStr When Covid-19 first struck: Analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy
title_full_unstemmed When Covid-19 first struck: Analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy
title_short When Covid-19 first struck: Analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy
title_sort when covid-19 first struck: analysis of the influence of structural characteristics of countries - technocracy is strengthened by open democracy
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8489721/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34606508
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257757
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