Effect of Health Resources on Health Status in Iran

Maintaining and enhancing the capacity of health resources are key factors in reducing health crises and making sustainable growth and development. Given the important role of health resources and their unequal distribution on health status, this study aimed to investigate the effect of health resources on health status in Iran.

This study is a descriptive-analytical, applied, and correlational study that used a vector error correction model for Iran at the national level. The annual time series data were extracted from the World Bank database and statistical yearbooks of the Iranian Statistical Center for the years 1990–2017. The estimates of the research model and required tests were performed in Eviews 10 software.

The results showed that if the physician supply increased by one percent in the previous year, life expectancy would increase by 0.11 percent. Also, with each one percent increase in the gross national income, health expenditures, and average years of schooling, life expectancy increases by 0.0005, 0.001, and 0.04 percent, respectively.

Physician supply, gross national income, health spending, and mean years of education had positive impacts on life expectancy in Iran. Thus, adopting policies to optimize physician supply if does not lead to induced demand, as well as enacting and enforcing laws to prevent induced demand, can improve the health status in Iran.