Management of hospital resources and hospitalization in EU27 : a factor analysis

Abstract

The article aims to corroborate whether, in terms of public health and regional imbalances in the European Union for the year 2019, there is a correlation between the degree of wealth of a country and the way in which public health is managed and, likewise, to find independent factors that can group the various variables and explain them. Data from the 27 countries of the European Union were extracted from Eurostat, of which only 16 were subject to analysis, seeking to prevent conspicuous overestimation by missing data. Through the application of a data reduction methodology, Factor Analysis, seven variables were transformed into two factors: Hospitalization (Infant mortality, Hospital days of in-patients, and Live births) and Hospital Resource Management (Discharges, Hospital beds, GDP per capita, and Preventable and treatable mortality). Thus, it was found that the average number of days in hospital in countries with high GDP is equal to the average number of days in hospital in countries with low GDP (where GDP can represent the management of hospital resources and days in hospital are a proxy of the hospitalization). Proven by the factors, it was found, therefore, that the hospitalization is not significantly different, in the different levels of management of hospital resources in the countries, with Germany standing out as an outlier by boasting a greater number of births, more days in the hospital and a larger number of beds. It is also inferred that this scenario would be projected for the other eleven countries not considered in the Factor Analysis.