The relationships between democratic experience, adult health, and cause-specific mortality in 170 countries between 1980 and 2016: an observational analysis

Publication date: Available online 14 March 2019Source: The LancetAuthor(s): Thomas J Bollyky, Tara Templin, Matthew Cohen, Diana Schoder, Joseph L Dieleman, Simon WigleySummaryBackgroundPrevious analyses of democracy and population health have focused on broad measures, such as life expectancy at birth and child and infant mortality, and have shown some contradictory results. We used a panel of data spanning 170 countries to assess the association between democracy and cause-specific mortality and explore the pathways connecting democratic rule to health gains.MethodsWe extracted cause-specific mortality and HIV-free life expectancy estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 and information on regime type from the Varieties of Democracy project. These data cover 170 countries and 46 years. From the Financing Global Health database, we extracted gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, also covering 46 years, and Development Assistance for Health estimates starting from 1990 and domestic health spending estimates starting from 1995. We used a diverse set of empirical methods—synthetic control, within-country variance decomposition, structural equation models, and fixed-effects regression—which together provide a robust analysis of the association between democratisation and population health.FindingsHIV-free life expectancy at age 15 years improved significantly during the study period (1970–2015) in countries after they transiti...
Source: The Lancet - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research