EFFECT OF HEALTHCARE EXPENDITURE ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE NUMBER OF NURSES AND DOCTORS EMPLOYED

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze the correlation between the numbers of doctors and nurses, as well as the effect of health expenditure (HE) on the employment of doctors and nurses. Methods: The study data belong to the Turkish health system and cover the years 1975-2018. The amount of HE data was handled as the ratio of Turkey to national income (GDP). Pearson correlation test and linear regression model methods were used in this study. The doctor-nurse ratio was examined in order to see the interaction levels of the relationship between the doctor and the nurse apart from the correlation. Findings: There is a strong correlation between nurse and doctor employment, and the correlation value was calculated as 0.973 (p-value=0.001, n=44 samples). Correlation coefficients between dependent variables and independent (HE) variables were analyzed as 0.715 (p-value=0.001) for nurse employment and 0.840 (p-value=0.001) for physician employment, respectively. Conclusion: The amount of HE was very effective on both the number of physicians and the nurses based on the regression analysis.

Keywords

• The number of physicians
• The number of physicians
• The number of nurses
• Healthcare expenditure
• Pearson correlation
• Linear regression model

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