Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30918028›Full record

ArticleBMJ open2019

Measuring the efficiency of health systems in Asia: a data envelopment analysis.

Sayem Ahmed, Md Zahid Hasan, Mary MacLennan, Farzana Dorin, Mohammad Wahid Ahmed, Md Mehedi Hasan, Shaikh Mehdi Hasan, Mohammad Touhidul Islam, Jahangir A M Khan

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ open, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
52citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

52 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  19. The trade-off between health system resiliency and efficiency: evidence from COVID-19 in European regions.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2024
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Sayem AhmedHealth Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh.ORCID 0000-0001-9499-1500
Md Zahid HasanHealth Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh.ORCID 0000-0002-3824-8947
Mary MacLennanDepartment of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom.
Farzana DorinHealth Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Mohammad Wahid AhmedHealth Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Md Mehedi HasanInstitute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland, Indooroopilly, Queensland, Australia.
Shaikh Mehdi HasanHealth Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Mohammad Touhidul IslamHealth, Nutrition Population Programme, BRAC, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Jahangir A M KhanLiverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveThis study aims to estimate the technical efficiency of health systems in Asia. SETTINGS: The study was conducted in Asian countries.

methodsWe applied an output-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to estimate the technical efficiency of the health systems in Asian countries. The DEA model used per-capita health expenditure (all healthcare resources as a proxy) as input variable and cross-country comparable health outcome indicators (eg, healthy life expectancy at birth and infant mortality per 1000 live births) as output variables. Censored Tobit regression and smoothed bootstrap models were used to observe the associated factors with the efficiency scores. A sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the consistency of these efficiency scores.

resultsThe main findings of this paper demonstrate that about 91.3% (42 of 46 countries) of the studied Asian countries were inefficient with respect to using healthcare system resources. Most of the efficient countries belonged to the high-income group (Cyprus, Japan, and Singapore) and only one country belonged to the lower middle-income group (Bangladesh). Through improving health system efficiency, the studied high-income, upper middle-income, low-income and lower middle-income countries can improve health system outcomes by 6.6%, 8.6% and 8.7%, respectively, using the existing level of resources. Population density, bed density, and primary education completion rate significantly influenced the efficiency score.

conclusionThe results of this analysis showed inefficiency of the health systems in most of the Asian countries and imply that many countries may improve their health system efficiency using the current level of resources. The identified inefficient countries could pay attention to benchmarking their health systems within their income group or other within similar types of health systems.

Indexed as

Delivery of Health CareAsiaBenchmarkingEfficiency, OrganizationalHealth ExpendituresHumansOutcome and Process Assessment, Health CareQuality ImprovementQuality Indicators, Health CareAsian Countriesdata envelopment analysishealth systems efficiencytechnical efficiency

Identifiers

PMID30918028
PMCPMC6475137

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.