We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
The Impact of Pediatrician Supply on Child Health Outcomes: Longitudinal Evidence from Japan.
- Authors
Sakai, Rie; Fink, Günther; Kumamaru, Hiraku; Kawachi, Ichiro
- Abstract
<bold>Objective: </bold>To investigate the effect of pediatrician supply on under-5 mortality over the period 2000-2010.<bold>Data Sources: </bold>Multiple publicly available data sources were used.<bold>Study Design: </bold>Japan's 366 "Secondary Tier of Medical Care Units" (STMCU) were used as study units. To evaluate the association between under-5 mortality and pediatrician supply, we explored time and area fixed-effects Poisson regression model. The following factors were introduced into the models as time-varying controls: (1) number of physicians other than pediatricians per total population except for under-5-year-old population, and (2) income per total population by year and STMCU. Extensive sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess robustness of results.<bold>Principal Findings: </bold>Pediatrician density was inversely associated with under-5 mortality. We estimated that a unit increase in pediatrician density was associated with a 7 percent (95 percent CI: 2-12 percent) reduction in the child mortality rate after adjustment for all other variables. The results were consistent and robust across all specifications tested.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>The results suggest that increasing human health resources can have positive effects on child health, even in settings where child mortality of less than 5 per 1,000 has been achieved.
- Subjects
JAPAN; PEDIATRICIANS; MEDICAL care; POISSON'S equation; ROBUST statistics; MORTALITY; MEDICAL technology; CHILD mortality; GEOGRAPHIC information systems; INCOME; PEDIATRICS; STATISTICAL models
- Publication
Health Services Research, 2016, Vol 51, Issue 2, p530
- ISSN
0017-9124
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/1475-6773.12354