Does Spending More on Healthcare Yields Higher Life Expectancy? A Case Study on Gulf Cooperation Council Countries
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Asian Institute of Research, Journal Publication, Journal Academics, Education Journal, Asian Institute
Asian Institute of Research, Journal Publication, Journal Academics, Education Journal, Asian Institute

Journal of Health and Medical Sciences

ISSN 2622-7258

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open access

Published: 27 September 2021

Does Spending More on Healthcare Yields Higher Life Expectancy? A Case Study on Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Nouf S. AlSaied, Musaed S. AlAli

Ministry of Health (Kuwait), The Public Institute of Applied Education and Training (Kuwait)

journal of social and political sciences
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doi

10.31014/aior.1994.04.03.185

Pages: 109-113

Keywords: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Life Expectancy, Healthcare Expenditure (HE), Panel OLS Regression, Healthcare System Efficiency

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the nexus between economic factors and life expectancy in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Using the data of 115 countries for the year 2019, results revealed that only healthcare expenditure (HE) per capita showed statistically significant direct relation with life expectancy while GDP per capita and percentage of country GDP allocated to healthcare sector did not show any statistically significant effect. Based on panel OLS regression model used in this research, results showed that with the amount of money GCC countries spend on their healthcare systems, four out of the six GCC countries had a life expectancy that was lower than the estimated life expectancy by 3.28 years indicating inefficiency in their healthcare systems. The output also indicates that even though economic factors have an effect on life expectancy to a certain point, other factors such as the quality of the healthcare system staff, education, corruption, pollution, and other non-economic factors also affect life expectancy.

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