Original Research Article
Year: 2017 | Month: April | Volume: 7 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 370-379
Evidence on the Association between Socioeconomic Resources and Amenable Mortality
José L Alfonso-Sancheza,b, Johan Mackenbachc, Rasmus Hoffmannc, Ragnar Westerlingd, Gema Alfonso-Landetee
aProfessor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Valencia
bChief of Preventive Medicine, University General Hospital Consortium, Valencia.
Av. Blasco Ibañez 15, 46010 Valencia, Spain
cDepartment of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
dUppsala University, Department of Public Health and caring sciences, Social Medicine. Uppsala, Box 564, SE-751 22 Uppsala, Sweden,
eAssistant Research. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Valencia.
Corresponding Author: José L Alfonso-Sanchez
ABSTRACT
Background: There is growing interest in finding an indicator for health system performance that is directly related to health system expenditure and improvements in population health. This paper analyses the relationship between socioeconomic circumstances of countries and avoidable mortality.
Material and Methods: Six countries were selected: Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands. We studied the elasticity between avoidable mortality and different determinants of health.
Results: The elasticity between avoidable mortality and health expenditure per capita was heterogeneous among the different countries, with values ranging from –0.2 (Spain) to –0.95 (Germany).
Conclusions: This study confirms the existence of a negative relationship between the rates of avoidable mortality and health spending in the countries with 2-yearlag. As a rule for policy implications, avoidable mortality rate is a good indicator of health expenditures per capita and health systems effectiveness.
Key words: Outcome assessment, quality indicators, quality improvements.