Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function

Background: The narrative of Africa Rising has increasingly been called into scrutiny, not just as a debate for economic growth and development, but also as a possible link to the surge in life expectancy on the continent. Theoretically, an increase in economic development tends to result in an incr...

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Autores principales:	Donald Salami, Ahmed Nabil Shaaban, Maria do Rosário Oliveira Martins
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Ubiquity Press 2019
Materias:	Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/ba6573da7abc4910a3e0688c1c44773d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:ba6573da7abc4910a3e0688c1c44773d2021-12-02T03:08:50ZAfrica Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function2214-999610.5334/aogh.2307https://doaj.org/article/ba6573da7abc4910a3e0688c1c44773d2019-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/2307https://doaj.org/toc/2214-9996Background: The narrative of Africa Rising has increasingly been called into scrutiny, not just as a debate for economic growth and development, but also as a possible link to the surge in life expectancy on the continent. Theoretically, an increase in economic development tends to result in an increase in public health spending and subsequent better health outcomes. Objective: This paper examines the contribution of economic development and other social determinants to the health status of the African continent and to provide evidence on whether the increase in life expectancy of the past two decades can be largely attributed to the Africa Rising narrative. Methods: We estimated an empirical health production function, with life expectancy gains as the output of the health care system, and various socio-economic, environmental and lifestyle factors as contributory factors. We fitted a generalized least squares model, using panel data from 52 African countries for the period 1995–2014. Findings: The estimation shows that while increases in health care spending contributed to life expectancy gains, urbanization rates and improved water access were the major drivers of life expectancy gains with substantially larger impacts in the past two decades. Conclusions: Overall, the results provide an evidence base for iterating the need to prioritize increasing funding and examine more critically how to improve the efficiency of health spending. It also illustrates potential gains that can be achieved from an inclusive health policy agenda with a broader range of social and economic development issues.Donald SalamiAhmed Nabil ShaabanMaria do Rosário Oliveira MartinsUbiquity PressarticleInfectious and parasitic diseasesRC109-216Public aspects of medicineRA1-1270ENAnnals of Global Health, Vol 85, Iss 1 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270
spellingShingle	Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Donald Salami Ahmed Nabil Shaaban Maria do Rosário Oliveira Martins Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function
description	Background: The narrative of Africa Rising has increasingly been called into scrutiny, not just as a debate for economic growth and development, but also as a possible link to the surge in life expectancy on the continent. Theoretically, an increase in economic development tends to result in an increase in public health spending and subsequent better health outcomes. Objective: This paper examines the contribution of economic development and other social determinants to the health status of the African continent and to provide evidence on whether the increase in life expectancy of the past two decades can be largely attributed to the Africa Rising narrative. Methods: We estimated an empirical health production function, with life expectancy gains as the output of the health care system, and various socio-economic, environmental and lifestyle factors as contributory factors. We fitted a generalized least squares model, using panel data from 52 African countries for the period 1995–2014. Findings: The estimation shows that while increases in health care spending contributed to life expectancy gains, urbanization rates and improved water access were the major drivers of life expectancy gains with substantially larger impacts in the past two decades. Conclusions: Overall, the results provide an evidence base for iterating the need to prioritize increasing funding and examine more critically how to improve the efficiency of health spending. It also illustrates potential gains that can be achieved from an inclusive health policy agenda with a broader range of social and economic development issues.
format	article
author	Donald Salami Ahmed Nabil Shaaban Maria do Rosário Oliveira Martins
author_facet	Donald Salami Ahmed Nabil Shaaban Maria do Rosário Oliveira Martins
author_sort	Donald Salami
title	Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function
title_short	Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function
title_full	Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function
title_fullStr	Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function
title_full_unstemmed	Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function
title_sort	africa rising, a narrative for life expectancy gains? evidence from a health production function
publisher	Ubiquity Press
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/ba6573da7abc4910a3e0688c1c44773d
work_keys_str_mv	AT donaldsalami africarisinganarrativeforlifeexpectancygainsevidencefromahealthproductionfunction AT ahmednabilshaaban africarisinganarrativeforlifeexpectancygainsevidencefromahealthproductionfunction AT mariadorosariooliveiramartins africarisinganarrativeforlifeexpectancygainsevidencefromahealthproductionfunction
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Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function

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