Determinantes da mortalidade infantil em países em vias de desenvolvimento: uma análise por meio de dados em painel, 2000 - 2019

Abstract

The present paper aims to analyze the health status in less developed countries from 2000 to 2019, using the infant mortality rate as an indicator. The justification for using the infant mortality rate as an indicator of health status is because this indicator reflects the health status and socioeconomic development of the population, in addition to the effectiveness of public policies in the areas of health, education, sanitation, as well as income generation and distribution. The methodology used for data analysis was panel data covering the years 2000 to 2019. Thus, 79 countries were selected with 20 years of information, or 1,580 observations of each indicator studied. The explanatory variables used were government expenditure on health, total (% of GDP), fertility rate, total (births per woman), people who use at least basic drinking water services (% of the population), people who use at least minus sanitation services (% of population), Poverty index, of US$ 1.90 per day (PPP of 211) (% of population), government expenditure on education, total (% of GDP), Literacy rate , adult women (% of women aged 15 and over) and exports of goods and services (% of GDP). What can be observed in the period was an improvement in the infant mortality rate, and consequently an improvement in the health status in less developed countries, an improvement mainly influenced by the fertility rate and improvements in socioeconomic indicators.