The Impact of the Organization of Public Health Systems on the Ability of Countries to Resist the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Experience of Developed Countries of the World and Ukraine.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the presence of functional interrelationships between the level of funding of the healthcare sector and the country's ability to withstand any pandemic, using the example of the COVID-19 pandemic. Official indicators presented by the WHO, analytical reports by Numbeo (the world's largest cost-of-living database), and the Global Health Security Index were used for the study. Using these indicators, the authors analyzed the following: the level of the spread of coronavirus infections in the world's countries, the share of public expenditures on the development of the medical sphere in the GDP of the countries, and the development of the healthcare sector in 12 developed countries and Ukraine. These countries were grouped into three groups, based on the model of the organization of the healthcare sector (Beveridge model, Bismark model, Market (private) model). The Farrar-Glauber method was used to check for multicollinearity in the input dataset, and thirteen relevant indicators were selected. These indicators took part in the formation of the generalized characteristics of the country's medical sphere and the ability to resist the pandemic. The state of readiness of countries to resist the spread of coronavirus infections was assessed using the country's index of vulnerability to COVID-19 and the integral index of the development of medicine. Additive convolution was used in combination with sigma-limited parameterization to form an integral index of the country's vulnerability to COVID-19 and to determine the weights of each indicator. The convolution of indicators according to the Kolmogorov-Gabor polynomial was used to construct an integral index of the development of medicine. Thus, while analyzing the ability of countries to resist the pandemic in terms of models of organization of the healthcare sector, it should be noted that none of the models demonstrated absolute effectiveness in the fight against the mass spread of COVID-19. The calculations made it possible to determine the nature of the relationship between the integral indices of the development of medicine and the vulnerability of countries to COVID-19, as well as a country's potential ability to resist any pandemic and prevent the mass spread of infectious diseases.

The Behavioral and Social Dimension of the Public Health System of European Countries: Descriptive, Canonical, and Factor Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The state and prospects of the healthcare industry of a country are among its top priorities because the quality of life and health of its citizens are indicators of its success and competitiveness. The aim of this study is to conduct a theoretical analysis and qualitative and quantitative assessments of indicators by developing an integral indicator in the context of behavioral, social, demographic, and economic factors that characterize the level of healthcare system development in European countries using multivariate statistical modeling methods. METHODS: The study was implemented using Statistica 10 and Statistica Portable statistical packages. The statistical base of the study was formed using descriptive analysis; a group of 10 European countries was identified using a cluster analysis based on the application of an iterative divisive k-means method. The degree and significance of the interrelations between the components characterizing the studied groups of indicators were determined using canonical correlations by conducting a canonical analysis. Factor modeling is conducted by applying the analysis of the main components to determine the relevant indicators for assessing the level of healthcare system development to build integral indicators of the level of healthcare system development in European countries. RESULTS: The need to improve the level of healthcare system development in European countries was confirmed. Shortcomings and possible reserves for potential improvement of the healthcare system were identified. CONCLUSIONS: The results can help public authorities, officials and employees of the healthcare sector organize and conduct effective, timely, high-quality regulation and adjustment of the regulatory and legislative framework to improve healthcare system development.

Impact of Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 on the Relationship between Healthcare Expenditures and Sustainable Economic Growth.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic led to a catastrophic burden on the healthcare system and increased expenditures for the supporting medical infrastructure. It also had dramatic socioeconomic consequences. The purpose of this study is to identify the empirical patterns of healthcare expenditures' influence on sustainable economic growth in the pandemic and pre-pandemic periods. Fulfilment of the research task involves the implementation of two empirical blocks: (1) development of a Sustainable Economic Growth Index based on public health, environmental, social, and economic indicators using principal component analysis, ranking, Fishburne approach, and additive convolution; (2) modelling the impact of different kinds of healthcare expenditures (current, capital, general government, private, out-of-pocket) on the index using panel data regression modelling (random-effects GLS regression). Regression results in the pre-pandemic period show that the growth of capital, government, and private healthcare expenditures positively influence sustainable economic growth. In 2020-2021, healthcare expenditures did not statistically significantly influence sustainable economic growth. Consequently, more stable conditions allowed capital healthcare expenditures to boost economic growth, while an excessive healthcare expenditure burden damaged economic stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the pre-pandemic period, public and private healthcare expenditures ensured sustainable economic growth; out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures dominantly contributed to the pandemic period.