This article comes from WeChat public account: DT Finance (ID: DTcaijing) , author: Zhang times the flute
As of March 25, 2020, the number of confirmed new crown pneumonia patients worldwide has exceeded 460,000. This pandemic has caused people’s concerns about national medical capabilities.
The authoritative medical journal “The Lancet” published the “2016 Global Disease, Injury and Risk Factor Burden Research Report” in 2018. (Global Burden of Diseases , Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016, hereinafter referred to as GBD) , Evaluated the availability and quality of personal medical services in 195 countries and regions between 1990 and 2016 .
This report takes the mortality of 32 diseases that should not die under effective care as an assessment indicator, and calculates the medical accessibility and quality index of countries around the world (Healthcare Access and Quality Index, hereinafter referred to as the HAQ Index) . The index of each country ranges from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the higher the opportunity and quality of medical services for individuals in the country.
Through this report, we can see how wide the global medical capability gap is? Which countries have stronger medical capabilities? What level is China’s medical capability?
Overview of medical capabilities in countries around the world
Overall, the medical capabilities of countries around the world are roughly related to the level of national economic development.
We refer to the division of the HAQ index in The Lancet, and draw the distribution of medical standards in various countries on the world map. It can be seen that northern Europe, North America, Oceania, and other economically developed regions have the strongest medical capabilities, followed by Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Arab region, and East Asia, including China. Countries at the end of the medical quality level are mainly distributed in Africa and Southeast Asia , South Asia and other regions.
The top 20 countries with global medical capabilities are mainly concentrated in Europe.
Iceland with the highest HAQ index score reached the highest 100 on the HAQ index score for 17 diseases including neonatal abnormalities and chronic kidney disease.
Norway, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Australia, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy and Andorra are among the top 10. These countries score higher on a wider range of diseases, including vaccine-preventable diseases, infectious diseases, maternal and child health, and diseases that require complex case management such as epilepsy and diabetes.
As you can see, most of these countries with higher scores on medical ability correspond to higher per capita income levels and lower population numbers or densities.
The characteristics of countries such as Australia and Canada are that the population is large and the population is scarce, while pocket countries such as Andorra and Luxembourg have populations and territories that are not even comparable to some megacities.
AlthoughAlthough the overall scores of European countries are quite high, we can also see a clear line-with Germany and Italy as the boundaries, the overall scores of Western European countries are above 90 points, while the scores of Eastern European countries are mainly distributed at 64- Between 80.
The gap between East and West is not particularly large. The world’s No. 1 Iceland has a score difference of 78.5 with the Central African Republic at the end, and this difference was 76.4 in 1990-that is, over time, the highest and lowest levels before The gap has even widened slightly.
We noticed that in the Central African Republic, the HAQ score of tuberculosis is even 0, which means that if you have tuberculosis in the Central African Republic, you can hardly get basic treatment. And in European countries, the medical system has been able to provide TB patients with a very comprehensive (the HAQ index is close to 100 points) .
African countries such as Somalia and Afghanistan, which have been in war for a long time and their economic conditions are relatively backward, the HAQ index is basically hovering around 20 points, and the medical ability ranks lower.
It is worth reflecting that in this outbreak, the world-leading medical capabilities have not become the umbrella of many European countries. Italy’s medical ability ranks in the top 10 in the world, and the cumulative number of confirmed cases has now exceeded 74,000. The United States, Spain, Germany and other countries with very severe epidemics also rank high in medical capabilities.
We are not saying that the development of the epidemic situation in various countries is negatively related to medical capabilities. After all, many countries have not achieved extensive testing-but even these countries with world-leading medical capabilities seem to be “naked swimming” in the tide of the epidemic. “.
This only tells us that, In the face of a sudden epidemic, medical care can only form part of the disease resistance . In addition, the operating efficiency of the national machinery, the industrial production capacity that guarantees the supply of materials, and the public’s perceptions and habits will determine whether a country can effectively suppress the development of the epidemic.
Which country has made the most progress in medical capabilities?
Of course, medical ability is still the greatest strength to fight the epidemic. We have also seen that over the years, the medical capabilities of most countries have significantly improved.
From 1990 to 2016, 186 countries and regions out of 195 countries and regions significantly improved their HAQ index scores.
Among them, China has the fastest growing HAQ index between 2000 and 2016 , with a growth rate of 24.6%. In 2016, China’s HAQ index score was 77.9, which jumped from a hundred in 2000 to 48th in the world.
In addition, the fastest-growing countries in the world over the past 16 years are concentrated in countries with HAQ index scores between 40-80. Countries with growth rates of more than 20% also include Equatorial New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Bangladesh.
Here, researchers also introduced SDI (SDI, the sociological population index, is derived from the level of per capita income, average education, and total fertility Comprehensively measure the country’s development level and divide the country into five levels of development: low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, and high.
They found that among the medium SDI countries, in addition to China, the medical capabilities of the Maldives, Equatorial Guinea, Peru and Thailand have also increased significantly.
The rapid development of China’s medical system can be traced back to the “Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Medical and Health System” issued in 2009. Taking this as an important node, China began to establish the world’s largest urban and rural medical and health service system and medical insurance system. After years of efforts, China has reached nearly 300,000 medical and health institutions at all levels, including urban, rural, and rural areas.
South Korea and Cyprus have made the most progress among high SDI countries. Take South Korea as an example, South Korea is more important after 2000