A Spatio-Temporal Analysis of OECD Member Countries' Health Care Systems: Effects of Data Missingness and Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression on Inference

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 20; no. 13; p. 6265
• Main Authors: Akioyamen, Peter, Begen, Mehmet A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 30.06.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Coefficient of variation; Data envelopment analysis; Delivery of Health Care; Efficiency; Geography; Health care; Health care expenditures; Health care policy; Health Expenditures; Human capital; Humans; Immunization; Infant mortality; Least-Squares Analysis; Life expectancy; Medical equipment; Medical imaging; Missing data; Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development; Outdoor air quality; Public health; Regression analysis; Resource allocation; Spatial analysis; Spatio-Temporal Analysis; Statistical analysis; Statistical inference; Statistics; Variables; global health; OECD; imputation; spatio-temporal analysis; health system performance; geographically and temporally weighted regression
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20136265

Determinants of health care quality and efficiency are of importance to researchers, policy-makers, and public health officials as they allow for improved human capital and resource allocation as well as long-term fiscal planning. Statistical analyses used to understand determinants have neglected to explicitly discuss how missing data are handled, and consequently, previous research has been limited in inferential capability. We study OECD health care data and highlight the importance of transparency in the assumptions grounding the treatment of data missingness. Attention is drawn to the variation in ordinary least squares coefficient estimates and performance resulting from different imputation methods, and how this variation can undermine statistical inference. We also suggest that parametric regression models used previously are limited and potentially ill-suited for analysis of OECD data due to the inability to deal with both spatial and temporal autocorrelation. We propose the use of an alternative method in geographically and temporally weighted regression. A spatio-temporal analysis of health care system efficiency and quality of care across OECD member countries is performed using four proxy variables. Through a forward selection procedure, medical imaging equipment in a country is identified as a key determinant of quality of care and health outcomes, while government and compulsory health insurance expenditure per capita is identified as a key determinant of health care system efficiency.