Ekonomik Krizleri Sağlığa Etkileri: Türkiye Örneği

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the impacts of economic crisis on health and health system in Turkey. In the study, the economic crisis of 1994, 2001 and 2009 were examined, and the impacts of these economic crisis on 22 health and health related indicator which can be obtained from secondary data sources were examined by the ARDL bound test appraoch, which is one of the econometric time series analyzes. In the study, indicators related to the health are used as dependent variables, while macroeconomic indicators (inflation, real GDP and unemployment), are used as independent variables. The economic crisis of 1994, 2001 and 2009 are included as dummy variables in the models. Eviews 9.5 package program was used for the analysis of the data obtained in the study by ARDL boundary test. In terms of the effects of economic crisis on health in Turkey, as a result of the analysis made, it is found that the economic crisis of 1994 was found to have significant (p<0.05) negative effect on the 5 variables, which are the mortality rate under 5, crude death rate, crude suicide rate, vegetable-fruit consumption and number of assistant health personnel, of 23 variables. On the other hand, there is no variable that the 1994 economic crisis have had significant positive effect on (p>0.05). The 2001 economic crisis was found to have significantly negative affect 7 out of 23 variables, including infant mortality rate, crude suicide rate, vegetable-fruit consumption, sugar consumption, public and total health expenditures, and total number of hospital beds. On the other hand, it was found that the 2001 economic crisis affected significantly and positivelythe variables of the mother mortality rate, DBT, polio and measles vaccination rates, death rates from traffic accidents, alcohol consumption and the Ministry of Health budget. In the 2009 economic crisis, it was found that 3 of the 22 variables (sugar consumption, private health expenditures and total health expenditures) were significantly and negatively affected (p<0.05). On the other hand, the 2009 economic crisis vas found to have significant positive effect (p<0.05) on 4 variables including infant mortality rate, alcohol consumption, vegetable-fruit consumption and public health expenditures. From the results of this study, it is concluded that the effects of crises on health generally show variability. However, it is evaluated that the effects of economic crises on the health, the severity of the crisis, the developments in health related behaviors and the effects on the health system within the policy preference are also important factors. It is recommended that health spending should be increased especially during the economic crisis periods in order to prevent possible negative effects of economic crisis in Turkey. Besides, positive effectrs of economic crisis on some health behaviors are considered as opportunities and, it is suggested that it should be given weight to trainings which may make these behaviors change permanent.