%0 Journal Article
%T Human resources for health and burden of disease: an econometric approach
%A Carla Castillo-Laborde
%J Human Resources for Health
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1478-4491-9-4
%X Cross-country multiple regression analyses were undertaken, with DALYs and DALYs disaggregated according to the three different groups of diseases as the dependent variable. Aggregate health workers and disaggregate physicians, nurses, and midwives were included as independent variables, as well as a variable accounting for the skill mix of professionals. The analysis also considers controlling for the effects of income, income distribution, percentage of rural population with access to improved water source, and health expenditure.This study presents evidence of a statistically negative relationship between the density of health workers (especially physicians) and the DALYs. An increase of one unit in the density of health workers per 1000 will decrease, on average, the total burden of disease between 1% and 3%. However, in line with previous findings in the literature, the density of nurses and midwives could not be said to be statistically associated to DALYs.If countries increase their health worker density, they will be able to reduce significantly their burden of disease, especially the burden associated to communicable diseases. This study represents supporting evidence of the importance of health workers for health.The labour force is an essential input in any productive system, and health care is not the exception. As Gupta and Dal Poz [[1], p.2] state, the 'functioning and growth of the health systems depend on the time, effort and skill mix provided by the workforce in the execution of its tasks'.The World Health Report 2006 defines health workers as 'all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance health' [[2], p.1]. In this context, the health workforce includes health services providers (e.g. physicians, nurses, midwives, and laboratory technicians) as well as health management and support workers (e.g. accountants in a hospital, administrative professionals, and drivers).In recent decades, worldwide concern about the shortage of healt
%U http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/9/1/4