Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

A round-up of the ONWARDS phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the novel weekly insulin icodec in people with diabetes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Human Resources for Health
Published in: Human Resources for Health 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research

Contribution of health workforce to health outcomes: empirical evidence from Vietnam

Authors: Mai Phuong Nguyen, Tolib Mirzoev, Thi Minh Le

Published in: Human Resources for Health | Issue 1/2016

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

In Vietnam, a lower-middle income country, while the overall skill- and knowledge-based quality of health workforce is improving, health workers are disproportionately distributed across different economic regions. A similar trend appears to be in relation to health outcomes between those regions. It is unclear, however, whether there is any relationship between the distribution of health workers and the achievement of health outcomes in the context of Vietnam. This study examines the statistical relationship between the availability of health workers and health outcomes across the different economic regions in Vietnam.

Methods

We constructed a panel data of six economic regions covering 8 years (2006–2013) and used principal components analysis regressions to estimate the impact of health workforce on health outcomes. The dependent variables representing the outcomes included life expectancy at birth, infant mortality, and under-five mortality rates. Besides the health workforce as our target explanatory variable, we also controlled for key demographic factors including regional income per capita, poverty rate, illiteracy rate, and population density.

Results

The numbers of doctors, nurses, midwives, and pharmacists have been rising in the country over the last decade. However, there are notable differences across the different categories. For example, while the numbers of nurses increased considerably between 2006 and 2013, the number of pharmacists slightly decreased between 2011 and 2013. We found statistically significant evidence of the impact of density of doctors, nurses, midwives, and pharmacists on improvement to life expectancy and reduction of infant and under-five mortality rates.

Conclusions

Availability of different categories of health workforce can positively contribute to improvements in health outcomes and ultimately extend the life expectancy of populations. Therefore, increasing investment into more equitable distribution of four main categories of health workforce (doctors, nurses, midwives, and pharmacists) can be an important strategy for improving health outcomes in Vietnam and other similar contexts. Future interventions will also need to consider an integrated approach, building on the link between the health and the development.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
The government decree number 92/2006/NĐ-CP on the establishment, approval, and management of the master plan on socioeconomic development dated 7 November 2006 divided Vietnam into six economic regions which are special zones of national economy and in which particular types of commerce and manufacturing take place based on geographical boundaries.
 
2
To calculate the average effect, we averaged all estimated coefficients from Table 4 over six regions, and converted to the corresponding measurement units.
 
Literature
1.
2.
3.
4.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Statistics Yearbooks 2006. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2006.
5.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Statistics Yearbooks 2007. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2007.
6.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Statistics Yearbooks 2008. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2008.
7.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Statistics Yearbooks 2009. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2009.
8.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Statistics Yearbooks 2010. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2010.
9.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Statistics Yearbooks 2011. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2011.
10.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Statistics Yearbooks 2012. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2012.
11.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Statistics Yearbooks 2013. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2013.
12.
UNDPin Vietnam. Vietnam: country report: 15 years achieving the Viet Nam Millennium Development Goals. Hanoi: UNDP in Vietnam; 2015.
13.
Vietnam: Millennium development goals report 2013: achievement and challenges in the progress of reaching Millennium Development Goals. Hanoi: Vietnam; 2013.
14.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Joint annual health report: human resource for health. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2010.
15.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Five-year health sector development plan 2011-2015. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2010.
16.
Thi Thu Ha B, Mirzoev T, Mukhopadhyay M. Shaping the health policy agenda: the case of safe motherhood policy in Vietnam. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2015;4:741–6.CrossRef
17.
Anand SRM, Anand S, Ravallion M. Human development in poor countries: on the role of private incomes and public services. J Econ Perspect. 1993;7:133–50.CrossRef
18.
Bank W. Vietnam’s health workforce in transition: problems, policies and prospects. World Bank; 2006.
19.
20.
Kanchanachitra C, Lindelow M, Johnston T, Hanvoravongchai P, Lorenzo FM, Huong NL, et al. Human resources for health in southeast Asia: shortages, distributional challenges, and international trade in health services. Lancet. 2011;377:769–81.CrossRefPubMed
21.
22.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Health Statistics Yearbooks 2013. Hanoi: General Statistics Office (Vietnam); 2013.
23.
Chalapati R, Brigitta O, Tran Dam A, Malcolm MD, Nguyen Thi Kim C, Hill PS. Compiling mortality statistics from civil registration systems in Viet Nam: the long road ahead. Bull World Health Organ. 2010;88:58–65.CrossRef
24.
25.
Vietnam General Statistics Office. Fertility and mortality in Vietnam patterns, trends and differentials. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment; 2011.
26.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Health Statistics Yearbooks 2006. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2006.
27.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Health Statistics Yearbooks 2007. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2007.
28.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Health Statistics Yearbooks 2008. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2008.
29.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Health Statistics Yearbooks 2009. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2009.
30.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Health Statistics Yearbooks 2010. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2010.
31.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Health Statistics Yearbooks 2011. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2011.
32.
Vietnam Ministry of Health. Health Statistics Yearbooks 2012. Hanoi: Vietnam Ministry of Health; 2012.
33.
34.
35.
Hertz E, Hebert JRJL. Social and environmental factors and life expectancy, infant mortality, and maternal mortality rates: results of a cross-national comparison. Soc Sci Med. 1994;39:105–14.CrossRefPubMed
36.
37.
38.
WHO. Everybody business: strengthening health systems to improve health outcomes: WHO’s framework for action. Geneva: WHO; 2007.
39.
Anand S, Bärnighausen T. Human resources and health outcomes: cross-country econometric study. Lancet. 2004;364:1603–9.CrossRefPubMed
40.
Cattell RB. The meaning and strategic use of factor analysis. In: J.R.Nesselroade and R.B. Castell (eds), Handbook of multivariate experimental psychology (second edition). New York: Springer; 1988. doi:10.​1007/​978-1-4613-0893-5.
41.
Beck N, Katz JN. What to do (and not to do) with time-series cross-section data. Am Polit Sci Rev. 1995;89:634–47.CrossRef
42.
Niko Speybroeck YK, Dal Poz MR, David B. Reassessing the relationship between human resources for health, intervention coverage and health outcomes. Geneva: WHO; 2006.
43.
Olsson E, Tuyet LT, Nguyen HA, Stålsby Lundborg C. Health professionals’ and consumers’ views on the role of the pharmacy personnel and the pharmacy service in Hanoi, Vietnam-a qualitative study. Clin Pharmacerical Ther. 2002;27(4):273–80.CrossRef
44.
45.
46.
Doan DTT, Bui HTT, Le TM, et al. Utilization of services provided by village based ethnic minority midwives in mountainous villages of Vietnam. International Journal of Women’s Health. 2016;8:571–80. doi:10.​2147/​IJWH.​S112996.
47.
Michaela Benzeval J, Taylor J, Judge K. Evidence on the relationship between low income and poor health: is the government doing enough? Fisc stud J Appl Pub Econ. 2000;21:375–99.CrossRef
48.
Mohammad Habibullah P. Revisiting health and income inequality relationship: evidence from developing countries. J Econ Coop Dev. 2012;33:25–62.
49.
Savaş Çevik MOT. Public spending on health care and health outcomes: crosscountry comparison. J bus econ finance. 2013;2:82–100.
50.
David E. Bloom, David Canning: Population health and economic growth. Commission of Growth and Condition. The World Bank; 2008.
51.
Senterfitt JW, Long A, Shil M, Teutsch SM: Social determinants of health: how social and economic factors affect health in Social Determinants of Health,. pp. 14–24. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health; 2013:14–24.
Metadata
Title
Contribution of health workforce to health outcomes: empirical evidence from Vietnam
Authors
Mai Phuong Nguyen
Tolib Mirzoev
Thi Minh Le
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Human Resources for Health / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1478-4491
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0165-0

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

Human Resources for Health 1/2016 Go to the issue

Review

Training for impact: the socio-economic impact of a fit for purpose health workforce on communities

Research

What do health workers in Timor-Leste want, know and do? Findings from a national health labour market survey

Research

Workforce planning and development in times of delivery system transformation

Research

Retention of health workers in rural Sierra Leone: findings from life histories

Research

Does migration ‘pay off’ for foreign-born migrant health workers? An exploratory analysis using the global WageIndicator dataset

Commentary

Setting targets for human resources for eye health in sub-Saharan Africa: what evidence should be used?