How investment in public health has impacted the prevalence of tuberculosis in China: A study of provincial variations between 2005 and 2015

Abstract

How do public investments in public health actually impact health outcomes? This question has not been investigated enough, especially regarding infectious diseases. This study investigates the correlations between public health expenditure and the incidence of tuberculosis in China using a provincial panel dataset. The analysis focuses on the correlations between public health expenditure and tuberculosis incidence, using the fixed effects models and Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) method. Overall, a 10% increase of public health expenditure per capita is associated with a 0.0019% decrease of tuberculosis incidence. A series of robustness tests show that the correlation between public health expenditure and TB incidence is valid. Future research should focus more on the performance of public health, particularly infectious diseases like tuberculosis, and provide references for health policymakers.