Premature mortality from cardiovascular disease and diabetes in the Caribbean and associations with health care expenditure, 2001 − 2011

• Published in: Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública
• Main Authors: Ahmed Razavi, Ian Hambleton, T. Alafia Samuels, Natasha Sobers, Nigel Unwin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2018
• Subjects: Cardiovascular diseases; diabetes mellitus; mortality; health expenditures; Caribbean Region; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2018.179; https://doaj.org/article/254daa04fa8f41e88066e8079bd5468f

Objective. To examine the historical trends of premature death due to cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus (CVD-DM) in the Caribbean and to identify any associations between these trends and health care expenditure. Methods. Death data were obtained from the World Health Organization Mortality Database; population data, from the United Nations World Population prospects; and health care expenditure data, from the World Bank. In all, 17 Caribbean countries had mortality data; however, only 11 had both mortality and health care expenditure data available. The analyses explored country-level trends in age-standardized CVD-DM mortality rates using 3-year moving averages from 1995 − 2014 for women and men. Associations between secular mortality rate change and health care expenditure were considered. Results. CVD-DM mortality rates ranged from 10.7 − 247.1 per 100 000, with a mean of 92.3 and standard deviation of 47.6. Of the 17 countries, 12 showed a reduction in premature CVD-DM mortality in both men and women, with others either showing no improvement or increases. Mortality rates for men were 1.46 times higher than for women. On average, there was a 68% increase in health care expenditure, with a 15.4% fall in CVD-DM mortality in women and 4.9% in men. Mixed effects modelling demonstrated a weak association between health care expenditure and declining CVD-DM mortality for both women −0.006 (95%CI = −0.014 − 0.001) and men −0.008 (95%CI = −0.017 − 0.001). Conclusions. Findings suggest that progress has been made to reduce premature CVD-DM related mortality in a number of Caribbean countries. Differences between countries may be partly related to differences in health care system performance, although further research that considers confounders is needed.