Child Health Outcome Inequalities in Low and Middle Income Countries
| Autor: | Magnus Lindelow, Sven Neelsen, Patrick Eozenou |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Medicine (General)
inequality Inequality media_common.quotation_subject Population Health Informatics child mortality R5-920 Health Information Management Outcome Assessment Health Care Development economics Economics Humans Social determinants of health Child education Developing Countries concentration index media_common Sustainable development education.field_of_study Child Health stunting Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Millennium Development Goals economic growth Health indicator Child mortality Socioeconomic Factors Income Aggregate income Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
| Zdroj: | Health Systems & Reform, Vol 7, Iss 2 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2328-8620 2328-8604 |
| Popis: | Prior to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) era, considerable progress was made toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) health indicators. Despite these achievements, many countries failed to meet the MDG target levels, between-country inequalities in health outcomes did not improve, and many countries making progress in average indicator levels did so while at the same time seeing increasing within-country inequalities. We build on the existing literature documenting levels and trends in health inequalities by expanding the number of data-points under focus, and we contribute to this literature by analyzing the extent to which inequalities in child health outcomes are related to socioeconomic inequalities, and to aggregate income growth. The objective of this paper is to examine long-run trends in average population levels and within-country inequalities for two child health outcomes-the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and stunting-in 102 countries across 6 regions. We find that only about a third of countries in our sample managed to both reduce U5MR levels and inequalities, and only a quarter did so for stunting. The fact that inequality in service coverage seems to follow a more favorable trend than inequality in health outcomes suggests that policies aiming to reduce health inequities should not only foster more equitable service coverage but also focus on the social determinants of health. Moreover, there is no strong correlation between changes in health inequalities and income growth, suggesting that income generating development policies alone will typically not suffice to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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