The physician/population ratio as a proxy measure of the adequacy of health care

Abstract

Chen M K (National Center for Health Services Research, Rockville, Maryland, USA) and Lowenstein F. The physician/population ratio as a proxy measure of the adequacy of health care. International Journal of Epidemiology 1985, 14: 300–303. In the absence of service use and health status data at the individual level in most developing countries of the world, the utility of the physician/population ratio as a proxy measure of health service availability and use in health needs assessment is tested. Data from 60 predominantly developing countries show that the physician/population ratio is curvilinearly related to an indicator of population hearth status, namely infant mortality. When this relation is linearized by logarithmic transformations, the physician/population ratio accounts for 53% of the variance in infant mortality. There is no significant functional relationship between the physician/population ratio and infant mortality when state-level data in the US are analysed. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to needs assessment in developing regions of the world. © 1985 International Epidemiological Association.