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Abstract
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INTRODUCTION: In recent years the global community faces a financial crisis with potential significant impacts on population health indicators.
AIM: The aim of the paper is to map the impact of economic crisis on the Greek health care system and on the population health.
METHODology: A systematic literature review was conducted in databases Pubmed, Embase and Scopus, using the following key-words: economic crisis, financial crisis, health problems, mortality, morbidity, suicides, austerity, consequences, Argentina, Mexico, Greece, Russia, Lietuvos, Latvia, Estonia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand.
RESULTS: Greece entered a deep economic crisis in 2009, the main features of which are the large fiscal deficit reaching 15.6% in 2009 and remaining high for the next three years (10 % of GDP in 2012), and the enormous public debt which shows an upward trend, exceeding 150% of GDP in 2012. Unemployment rate exceeded 27% of the population in 2013, whereas the percentage of people living below the poverty threshold has increased from 27.6 % in 2009 to 31% in 2011. Total current expenditure on health decreased by 19% while public current expenditure decreased by 23% between 2009 and 2011. At the same time an increase in both morbidity (eg infectious diseases rates, mental health problems) and mortality rates (total mortality rate was increased by 3.4%) and expressed unmet needs (55% of the total population) were recorded between 2009 and 2011.
CONCLUSIONS: Unfortunately, until now, first data on the impact of the crisis in our country seem to confirm the negative experience of countries which found themselves in a similar situation. © 2015 (publisher). All rights reserved.
Language: en |