Wealth, health expenditure and cancer: an econometric analysis for European countries

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of health expenditures and wealth on cancer treatment success in European countries. Cervical cancer data were used for this purpose.

Cervical cancer incidence/death rate (CANCER), Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPP) and Current health expenditure (HEXP) were included as predictors. Cancer data was obtained from WHO European Data Warehouse while health expenditure and wealth datas were obtained from World Bank Development Indicators. Panel regression models, panel ARDL cointegration analysis and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality analysis were used to define the existence of a statistical relationship between variables.

The result obtained in the model shows the existence of a positive relationship between cervical cancer and all independent variables (health expenditures and wealth). While cervical cancer treatment success in the European countries is highly sensitive to health expenditure, the effect of wealth on cervical cancer is very weak. According to the findings of the causality analysis, a unidirectional causal relationship from HEXP to CANCER and a unidirectional causal relationship from GDPP to CANCER was determined in analysis. So, independent variables in the model are the cause of cervical cancer.

This study provides important evidence for policy makers to allocate relevant and economic resources to healthcare services to succeed in cervical cancer. The determination that health expenditures have a positive effect on the treatment of cervical cancer provides a clue that more efforts should be made regarding the economic accessibility of health services in european countries.