Addressing health inequalities in South Africa : policy insights and the role of improved efficiency
type: CreativeWork
description: This study attempts to assess the equity and technical efﬁciency aspects of the South African health system. It empirically assesses the status qua and trends in equity as it relates to child morbidity and mortality and self-reported illness and utilization of different service providers in adulthood. Furthermore, an assessment of the technical efﬁciency and productivity of a sample of public sector hospitals is conducted. This is meant to explore the size of potential efficiency gains that is tantamount to the injection of additional resources, which are highly needed for addressing inequities in a scenario where mobilization of additional resources from the public purse is seriously constrained as a result of poor economic performance, stringent ﬁscal policies and competing priorities, among other things. Secondary data are used in the analyses. These include data from the Living Standards and Development Survey (LSDS) of 1993, conducted jointly by the World Bank and the South African Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, and data from the October Household Survey (OHS) series (OHS 1995 and OHS 1998) that are conducted annually by Statistics South Africa. For the analysis of hospital efﬁciency, data are obtained from annual statistical publications of provincial health departments. The equity analysis is done using concentration indices (and curves). In the adult population, standardized concentration indices are computed to rule out a possible confounding effect of the demographic variables, age and gender. Furthermore, utilization of services is standardized for need as measured by self-reported acute or chronic illness. Additionally, to identify some factors, which may be associated with inequities in child health, probit models are estimated. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and DEA-based Maimquist productivity index are used to examine the state of hospital technical efﬁciency and productivity respectively. With the limited data …
abstract: This study attempts to assess the equity and technical efﬁciency aspects of the South African health system. It empirically assesses the status qua and trends in equity as it relates to child morbidity and mortality and self-reported illness and utilization of different service providers in adulthood. Furthermore, an assessment of the technical efﬁciency and productivity of a sample of public sector hospitals is conducted. This is meant to explore the size of potential efficiency gains that is tantamount to the injection of additional resources, which are highly needed for addressing inequities in a scenario where mobilization of additional resources from the public purse is seriously constrained as a result of poor economic performance, stringent ﬁscal policies and competing priorities, among other things. Secondary data are used in the analyses. These include data from the Living Standards and Development Survey (LSDS) of 1993, conducted jointly by the World Bank and the South African Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, and data from the October Household Survey (OHS) series (OHS 1995 and OHS 1998) that are conducted annually by Statistics South Africa. For the analysis of hospital efﬁciency, data are obtained from annual statistical publications of provincial health departments. The equity analysis is done using concentration indices (and curves). In the adult population, standardized concentration indices are computed to rule out a possible confounding effect of the demographic variables, age and gender. Furthermore, utilization of services is standardized for need as measured by self-reported acute or chronic illness. Additionally, to identify some factors, which may be associated with inequities in child health, probit models are estimated. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and DEA-based Maimquist productivity index are used to examine the state of hospital technical efﬁciency and productivity respectively. With the limited data …
author: Asbu, Eyob Zere
language: eng
date published: 2002
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:44Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Public Health and Family Medicine

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8791