The Effect of District Health Spending on Disease Rates in Sumatra Island

Abstract

This study aims to find the effect of district health spending on disease rates namely dengue fever, diarrhea, and tuberculosis in 130 districts in Sumatra Island in 2016. A quantitative approach with 3 multiple linear regression (MLR) methods that employ robust standard errors is used for this study. The study finds that district health spending reduces the number of dengue fever, diarrhea, and tuberculosis, but not significantly. This condition can be caused by the inefficient use of district health expenditure. This study finds the number of health centers has negative and significant effect on the number of dengue fever, diarrhea, and tuberculosis. Conversely, population and population density have a positive and significant effect on dengue fever, diarrhea, and tuberculosis. Economic losses due to diseases like dengue fever, diarrhea, and tuberculosis are very high. Therefore, the government must use effective and various policies to overcome the problem of existing diseases, one of which is to improve the efficiency of using the health budget. The government should also control birth rates to reduce population growth and encourage transmigration to reduce population density.