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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Arnab Acharya, PhD¹, William McGreevey, PhD², Ishrat Husain, PhD³, and Sarah Arnett². (1) The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom, 44-(0)207-927-2681, arnab.acharya@lshtm.ac.uk, (2) Futures Group International, Constella Group, 1 Thomas Circle, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005, (3) Global Health/HIV/AIDS, USAID, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20523

Health is an integral part of human development and rights. Could it also foster other types of human development for, example, GDP per capita? A persistent issue has been whether population health contributes to economic growth and if the health of their respective populations, during the take-off period, contributed to many of the economies that achieved high levels of GDP and those that have grown in recent years. We offer a systematic review of the literature that addresses these issues. The literature review will include both theoretical and empirical literature from economic and public health analysis. The critical review then is extended to analyze growth patterns observed since the 1960s mostly for developing countries. Several health indicators are considered to observe the effect on growth. As health status is likely to be affected by income, we tackle the possible problem of reverse causality through the instrumental variable approach. Another avenue explored is the examination of historical trends of income and health in developed countries to detect if similar patterns are emerging in developing countries. Preliminary analysis indicates that some health indicators are correlated with income growth. Further, some are more strongly correlated with income growth than other indicators are. If these results persist upon greater scrutiny we would emphasize, as has been done for developed countries by Robert Fogel, that health during childhood is an important factor correlated with income growth.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine the critical health factors for economic development to occur

Keywords: Data Collection, Health Disparities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation