EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEALTHCARE SERVICES CAPACITY AND CHILD MORTALITY IN TÜRKİYE’S NUTS-III REGIONS

This study investigates the relationship between healthcare capacity and child mortality in Türkiye's NUTS-III regions from 2009 to 2022, addressing a gap in existing literature. Employing Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a healthcare capacity index was constructed using data on health institutions, hospital beds, and various healthcare personnel per capita.

Panel data analysis using the Prais-Winsten Regression then used to examine the relationship between this index and child mortality, controlling for GDP per capita, female secondary education rates, and urbanization rates. Findings reveal a statistically significant negative correlation between healthcare capacity and child mortality, indicating that regions with stronger healthcare infrastructure experience lower child mortality rates.

GDP per capita and female secondary education also exhibit significant negative relationships with child mortality, underscoring the importance of economic development and maternal education in child health outcomes. Urbanization, however, showed no significant effect. Notably, the study observes a trend towards This study examines the relationship between healthcare capacity and child mortality across Türkiye’s NUTS-III regions over the period 2009–2022.

To capture the multidimensional nature of local health services, a healthcare capacity index is constructed via Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using per-capita measures of health institutions, hospital beds, and healthcare personnel. The analysis then estimates panel models, with Prais–Winsten regression with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) as the baseline specification, and complementary fixed-effects specifications to assess robustness, while controlling for GDP per capita, female secondary school enrollment rate, and urbanization.

Across specifications, higher healthcare capacity is consistently associated with lower child mortality, and higher female secondary school enrollment is also associated with lower mortality. By contrast, the estimated associations for GDP per capita and urbanization are more sensitive to model specification and should be interpreted cautiously.

Moreover, although regional inequalities persist, the findings indicate that healthcare capacity has exhibited a gradual tendency toward convergence across regions over time.more balanced regional healthcare resources, suggesting a reduction in regional disparities over the study period.