2023-05-30 10:05:47
New study data clearly shows that a shortage of doctors, nurses, midwives and other health professionals is strongly associated with higher mortality rates. This applies in particular to certain tropical diseases, pregnancy and childbirth, diabetes and kidney diseases.
Research data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 shows that while health care has improved significantly around the world over the past 30 years, inequalities persist that have a significant impact on mortality rates.
The number of healthcare workers per 10,000 people has almost tripled in 172 countries and regions, from 56 in 1990 to 142.5 in 2019. However, the staff is very unequally distributed: while in Sweden there are 696 health workers for every 10,000 inhabitants, there are only 14 in Ethiopia and 15 in Guinea.
The standardized mortality rate fell from 995.5 to 743.8 per 100,000 people between 1990 and 2019. However, in neurological and mental disorders, skin diseases, muscle and bone diseases, mortality has increased compared to 1990. Mortality from HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections increased from 2 per 100,000 population in 1990 to 3.6 in 2000 and has stagnated at this level ever since.
Mortality from enteric infections, tropical poverty-related diseases, malaria, diabetes and kidney disease, and from complications of pregnancy and childbirth was two to six times higher in countries and regions with fewer health workers than in countries with the best care.
Which: DOI 10.1136/bmj-2022-073043
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