Political economy of health research for universal health coverage: An outline of a theoretical and methodological agenda

Medicines List (EML), little has been done to determine the macroeconomic factors that influence ability to provide these essential medications.This study was done to explore potential macroeconomic factors related to essential cancer medication availability.The aim of this study is to explain variations in the number of essential cancer medications listed on national formularies.Methods: Cancer medications on the WHO's EML were compiled and compared against official English-language national formularies made available on the WHO website.The relationships between national formulary listings and indicators of economic development were then tested.Participants were sixty low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).Exploratory analysis was conducted using regression.Both the total number of essential cancer medications and the number of newly-added essential cancer medications appearing on national formularies were tabulated and compared against a compendium of country-level national indicators of economic development from the World Bank.Findings: Researchers determined the number of essential cancer medications available on national formularies for 60 LMICs.Regression analyses showed significant negative relationships between total numbers of essential cancer medications with health-related foreign aid and total health expenditures.However, a significant positive relationship existed between number of newly-added essential cancer medications and gross national income per capita.Interpretation: Countries with greater income per capita provide more essential cancer medicines to its residents, but countries whose healthcare expenditures constitute a greater proportion of its total budget, or countries relying most on outside assistance, provide fewer essential cancer medicines to its residents.The main limitation of this research is that text mining was restricted to Englishlanguage documents.The main strength of this research is that it is the first study attempting to explain variations in essential cancer medication availability using measures of economic development.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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