Estimating the Effect of Maternal and Child Health Outcomes to GDP per Capita

Abstract

Background: Using panel data from 1960 to 2013 of 193 UN countries, this paper explored the effect of maternal and child health outcomes specific to GDP per capita. Objective: To explore the effect of MDG 4 and 5 to per capita GDP of UN countries. Methods: Data gathered from World Bank were averaged from 1960 to 2013 and was normalized using lagged logarithmic form to fit in the parameters required to run multiple linear regression. Results: The combination of variables indicating maternal and child health outcomes significantly predicted the effect to GDP per capita at 99% (p<0.01, F=199.664, df=4,171) with all four variables significantly contributing to the final model. The beta weights suggest that a percentage decrease in infant mortality rate per 1000 live births, maternal mortality rate per 1000 live births and proportion of births attended by skilled personnel contribute a percentage increase in the GDP per capita in US dollars while a percentage increase in the proportion of children immunized with measles contributes a percentage increase in the GDP per capita in US dollars. Conclusion: Utilizing the empirical model, the maternal and child health outcomes have a minimum effect of 2.32% to 4.81% to GDP per capita.