Health Outcomes, Public Health Spending and Education nexus in Kenya
Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goal 3 requires countries to provide good health and well-being for their people through quality health care. It is therefore important for a country to have information on the right mix of public expenditure in the health sector and education quality to have better health outcomes. This study contributes to achieving Goal 3 by studying the role of government spending on the health sector and the role education quality has on health outcomes, namely the longevity and child mortality rate in Kenya. The study adopts the ordinary least squares method to estimate this relationship. This study applies time series data for a period spanning from 1990 to 2022. The results show that government spending on the health sector has statistically significant asymmetric quadratic effects on health outcomes in Kenya. Results of the study reveal that sustainable government spending on the health sector can achieve better health outcomes, as 1.31 for the child mortality rate and 1.42 for longevity or life expectancy at birth. In addition, results show that interacting government expenditure in the health sector and education quality reduces child mortality rate and also improves longevity. Lastly, the interaction term indicates that improving education quality beyond a threshold of 1.81 can reduce child mortality rate and beyond 1.99 can improve longevity. The study therefore recommends that policymakers ensure both public health expenditure and educational quality exceed the established thresholds for sustainable health outcomes in Kenya.
Downloads
Metrics
References
2. Bein, M. A., Unlucan, D., Olowu, G., & Kalifa, W. (2017). Healthcare spending and health outcomes: evidence from selected East African countries. African health sciences, 17(1), 247-254.
3. Houeninvo, H. G. (2022). Effects of health expenditures on infant and child mortality rates: A dynamic panel data analysis of 37 African countries. African Development Review, 34(2), 255–267.
4. Kiross, G. T., Chojenta, C., Barker, D., & Loxton, D. (2020). The effects of health expenditure on infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from panel data analysis. Health Economics Review, 10(1), 5.
5. Manda, D. K., Mugo, M. G., & Murunga, J. (2020). Health expenditures and health outcomes in Kenya.
6. Matthew Oluwatoyin, A., Adegboye Folasade, B., & Fasina Fagbeminiyi, F. (2015). Public health expenditure and health outcomes in Nigeria. Public Health, 4(1), 45-56.
7. Murunga, J., Mogeni, G. E., & Kimolo, D. N. (2019). Public health spending and health outcomes in Kenya. European Scientific Journal, 15(1), 125-138.
8. Oladosu, A. O., Chanimbe, T., & Anaduaka, U. S. (2022). Effect of public health expenditure on health outcomes in Nigeria and Ghana. Health Policy OPEN, 3, 100-115.
9. Raghupathi, V., & Raghupathi, W. (2020). The influence of education on health: an empirical assessment of OECD countries for the period 1995–2015. Archives of Public Health, 78, 1-18.
10. Rana, R. H., Alam, K., & Gow, J. (2018). Health expenditure, child and maternal mortality nexus: a comparative global analysis. BMC international health and human rights, 18, 1-15.
11. Republic of Kenya (2003). Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation 2003-2007. Nairobi: Government Printer.
12. Republic of Kenya (2022). Economic Survey. Nairobi: Government Printer.
13. United Nations (2015). Sustainable Development Goals. Geneva: UN
14. World Bank (2022). World Development Indicators. Washington, D.C: WB
15. Xue, X. (2020). The Education-Health Nexus: A Meta-Analysis. Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers, 20(01).
Copyright (c) 2025 James Murunga, Elijah Ruttoh Chebet
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
