The Impact Of Globalization On Health Status In Sub-saharan Africa

Globalization (GLB), one of the characteristics that define the beginning of 21st century has received considerablernattention in the past two decades. Its effects are suggested to impact on most aspects of economic, political and social lifernincluding that of public health. Despite being current national and global concern with such many potential impacts, yetrnlimited attention so far has been given to its effect on health, particularly in developing countries.rnTherefore, this empirical study aimed to examine the relationship between GLB and health status outcome in Sub-rnSaharan Africa (SSA) to contribute to policy making dialogue that can exploits the possible benefits and mitigaternGLB’s detrimental effects.rnThe study was confined to the period of 1960-2000 for cross-section of twenty-six SSA. Two latest decades ofrncontemporary GLB were measured with preceding two decades for comparison. A Balanced panel data (time series-rnCross section) analytic method was used for its advantage over pure time series and pure cross-section study. Measures ofrnGLB and the traditionally recognized determinant of health were used as an independent variable while InfantrnMortality Rate (IMR) was used as a dependent measure of health. The analysis was made using LIMDEPrneconometric analysis software for its reach varieties of panel data analytic procedures. A 0.05 alpha level was used tornreport the significant values.rnThe result revealed the existence of correlations between the presumed determinant of health and measure of healthrnstatus. Among the determinant factors, export of goods and services (p=0.018), Primary school enrollment of femalesrn(p=0.030) and emigration (p=0.020) were found to have significant, inverse relationship with IMR. On the otherrnhand, import of goods and services (p=0.042), tourism (p=0.012), and surprisingly, urbanization (p=0.038) werernfound to have a positive, significant association.rnWhilst possible recommendations were suggested from these findings, the effect of separate dimensions of GLB on healthrnand the other integral features like cultural dimensions of GLBs’ influence on health are recommended for furtherrnresearch in the region.

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