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Healthcare Spending on the Quality of the Nation’s Health: An Analysis of Public Perceptions

Received: 15 October 2018    Accepted: 26 October 2018    Published: 21 December 2018
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Abstract

This study evaluated the public’s perception of how increasing levels of GDP spending on healthcare impact average life expectancy, according to a representative sample of adults in the United States. Statistical analyses correlated the responses with selected demographic variables. The results show that the sample placed greater importance on advances in healthcare than on public health efforts for explaining improved life expectancy over the past century. The sample perceived that increased spending on healthcare through 100% of GDP would continue to promote higher life expectancy. As to why life expectancy has improved, 72% of men and 68% of women (p = 0.0004) attributed it to healthcare. The second most common reason given was lifestyle (10%), followed by diet (9%), education (2%), sanitation (2%), and other (6%). A positive linear relationship was observed between percent of GDP spent on healthcare and perceived life expectancy for all education groups, but the estimated slope showing the relationship decreased with increasing education. In addition, estimated life expectancy when 0% of the GDP was spent on healthcare increased from 30.4 for those with some high school to 40.4 for those with some college, to 45.8 for those with a college degree, to 48.8 for those with a doctoral or professional degree. With greater importance placed on healthcare than public health, over spending on healthcare as opposed to public health will likely result in declining health outcomes and life expectancy in the future.

Published in World Journal of Public Health (Volume 3, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.wjph.20180304.14
Page(s) 125-130
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

GDP, Healthcare Spending, Life Expectancy, Public Health

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Ray Martell Merrill, Gordon Bangerter Lindsay, Chelsi Alexander. (2018). Healthcare Spending on the Quality of the Nation’s Health: An Analysis of Public Perceptions. World Journal of Public Health, 3(4), 125-130. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wjph.20180304.14

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    ACS Style

    Ray Martell Merrill; Gordon Bangerter Lindsay; Chelsi Alexander. Healthcare Spending on the Quality of the Nation’s Health: An Analysis of Public Perceptions. World J. Public Health 2018, 3(4), 125-130. doi: 10.11648/j.wjph.20180304.14

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    AMA Style

    Ray Martell Merrill, Gordon Bangerter Lindsay, Chelsi Alexander. Healthcare Spending on the Quality of the Nation’s Health: An Analysis of Public Perceptions. World J Public Health. 2018;3(4):125-130. doi: 10.11648/j.wjph.20180304.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.wjph.20180304.14,
      author = {Ray Martell Merrill and Gordon Bangerter Lindsay and Chelsi Alexander},
      title = {Healthcare Spending on the Quality of the Nation’s Health: An Analysis of Public Perceptions},
      journal = {World Journal of Public Health},
      volume = {3},
      number = {4},
      pages = {125-130},
      doi = {10.11648/j.wjph.20180304.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.wjph.20180304.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.wjph.20180304.14},
      abstract = {This study evaluated the public’s perception of how increasing levels of GDP spending on healthcare impact average life expectancy, according to a representative sample of adults in the United States. Statistical analyses correlated the responses with selected demographic variables. The results show that the sample placed greater importance on advances in healthcare than on public health efforts for explaining improved life expectancy over the past century. The sample perceived that increased spending on healthcare through 100% of GDP would continue to promote higher life expectancy. As to why life expectancy has improved, 72% of men and 68% of women (p = 0.0004) attributed it to healthcare. The second most common reason given was lifestyle (10%), followed by diet (9%), education (2%), sanitation (2%), and other (6%). A positive linear relationship was observed between percent of GDP spent on healthcare and perceived life expectancy for all education groups, but the estimated slope showing the relationship decreased with increasing education. In addition, estimated life expectancy when 0% of the GDP was spent on healthcare increased from 30.4 for those with some high school to 40.4 for those with some college, to 45.8 for those with a college degree, to 48.8 for those with a doctoral or professional degree. With greater importance placed on healthcare than public health, over spending on healthcare as opposed to public health will likely result in declining health outcomes and life expectancy in the future.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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    AB  - This study evaluated the public’s perception of how increasing levels of GDP spending on healthcare impact average life expectancy, according to a representative sample of adults in the United States. Statistical analyses correlated the responses with selected demographic variables. The results show that the sample placed greater importance on advances in healthcare than on public health efforts for explaining improved life expectancy over the past century. The sample perceived that increased spending on healthcare through 100% of GDP would continue to promote higher life expectancy. As to why life expectancy has improved, 72% of men and 68% of women (p = 0.0004) attributed it to healthcare. The second most common reason given was lifestyle (10%), followed by diet (9%), education (2%), sanitation (2%), and other (6%). A positive linear relationship was observed between percent of GDP spent on healthcare and perceived life expectancy for all education groups, but the estimated slope showing the relationship decreased with increasing education. In addition, estimated life expectancy when 0% of the GDP was spent on healthcare increased from 30.4 for those with some high school to 40.4 for those with some college, to 45.8 for those with a college degree, to 48.8 for those with a doctoral or professional degree. With greater importance placed on healthcare than public health, over spending on healthcare as opposed to public health will likely result in declining health outcomes and life expectancy in the future.
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Author Information
  • College of Life Sciences, Department of Health Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, USA

  • College of Life Sciences, Department of Health Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, USA

  • College of Life Sciences, Department of Health Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, USA

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