The Correlation Between Four Input Indicators and Six Demographic and Output Indicators Within the East European Healthcare Systems

The purpose of this paper is to compare the relevance of four resource indicators (inputs), in regard to six mortality indicators (outputs) within healthcare systems in 27 East European countries. The correlation between the following input indicators, number of GPs/100,000 population, health expenditure as % of GDP, total health expenditure PPP $/capita, pharmaceutical expenditure PPP $/capita, and the following demographic and output indicators, life expectancy at birth; reduction of life expectancy through death before 65 years; estimated infant mortality/1000 live births; maternal deaths/100,000 live births; SDR diabetes mellitus, all ages/100,000; and SDR tuberculosis, all ages/100,000, was analyzed. WHO data was used, for the following East European countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, FYROM, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Data from 2011 was used. The various degrees of correlation between the input and output indicators were analyzed using scatter diagrams and calculating Pearson linear correlation coefficient. This type of study can be extended to other health outcome indicators as it can be also tried with other healthcare system resource indicators. The research shows the importance of real data (money) as compared to percentage data. Many reform projects as well as policy evaluations are based on “weak” indicators, misleading public perception, hiding policy mistakes, and ultimately leading focus to unimportant things. The paper tries to shed light on indicators which are really significant from the point of view of policymakers. It might be also of particular interest to students who can understand better the use of indicators. This paper will be presented as PPT.