A Comparison of Country's Cultural Dimensions and Health Outcomes

Area of Science:

• Health economics
• Cross-cultural studies
• Public health

Background:

• International comparisons of healthcare systems reveal unexplained variations.
• These differences are often attributed to national culture, but specific cultural dimensions are rarely identified or measured.
• Understanding the link between culture and health outcomes/spending is crucial for effective healthcare policy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether cultural dimensions predict population health (life expectancy) and healthcare spending.
• To utilize Hofstede's six dimensions of culture as independent variables in regression models.

Main Methods:

• Development of two regression models using 2016 World Bank data.
• Independent variables: Hofstede's six country-level cultural dimensions.
• Dependent variables: Life expectancy and per capita healthcare spending.
• Data analysis performed on a reduced dataset of 60 countries due to data completeness.

Main Results:

• The model predicting life expectancy achieved an adjusted R-squared of 0.45.
• The model predicting per capita healthcare spending achieved an adjusted R-squared of 0.63.
• Individual cultural dimensions, particularly individualism, showed predictive power for life expectancy and healthcare spending.

Conclusions:

• Culture appears to be a significant predictor of both life expectancy and healthcare spending.
• However, a composite measure of all six cultural dimensions did not yield a significant association.
• Limitations include small sample size and variations in geography, climate, and political systems; further research on individualism and socialized medicine models is recommended.