The Relationship Between Pharmaceutical Expenditures, Health Care Expenditures and Gross Domestic Product in Iran:1999-2008

Based on theoretical principles and experimental observations, Health expenditure and real GDP in each country has a reciprocal relationship and the effect of each of these variables on other variables regardless of their interactions in terms of econometric methods would not be very reliable. Accordingly, this study investigated the relationship between pharmaceutical expenditures, health care expenditures and GDP in Iran. The study was analytical and ecological correlation type and Partial Correlation and regression tests have been used. The variables in this study consisted of gross domestic product, total pharmaceutical expenditures, Per capita drug consumption and total health expenditures. Data needed from different sources has been collected and wereanalyzed by SPSS software. In the significance level (P <0.01), variables, GDP per capita, total health expenditure and total pharmaceutical expenditures with per capita drug consumption had a statistically significant relationship. Based on study results, the variables of GDP, total health expenditure and total pharmaceutical expenditures 99.3 percent of the variance in per capita drug consumption and 99.8 percent change in total pharmaceutical expenditures can be explained. According to the results of the regression, the variable per capita health expenditures with a beta standard (=0.759 and =0.987) better than variable of economic growth predicted the per capita drug consumption and total pharmaceutical expenditures variables. In the years studied, per capita drug consumption with total health expenditure, total pharmaceutical expenditures and per capita gross domestic production was statisticaly correlated.