Human resources for health planning and management in the Eastern Mediterranean region: facts, gaps and forward thinking for research and policy

Table 4 Pearson correlations between HRH density and health indicators in EMR‡

	IMR	U5MR	MMR	LE
Physician density
r	-0.695	-0.646	-0.605	0.661
Sig.	*0.001*	*0.002*	*0.005*	*0.002*
N	20	20	20	20
Nurse density
r	-0.817	-0.794	-0.777	0.807
Sig.	*<0.000 1*	*<0.000 1*	*<0.000 1*	*<0.000 1*
N	20	20	20	20
Female literacy*
r	-0.740	-0.746	-0.781	0.677
Sig.	*<0.000 1*	*<0.000 1*	*<0.000 1*	*<0.000 1*
N	20	20	20	20
Population living below poverty line^€
r	0.479	0.579	0.723	-0.511
Sig.	0.276	0.173	0.067	0.241
N	7	7	7	7
Per capita gross national income (US $)^¥
r	-0.323	-0.370	-0.347	0.391
Sig.	0.282	0.213	0.245	0.186
N	13	13	13	13
Total expenditure on health^₤
r	-0.074	-0.118	-0.058	0.051
Sig.	0.755	0.619	0.807	0.830
N	20	20	20	20

‡ Afghanistan and Somalia were found to be outliers and were therefore removed from the analysis, thus the above table is based on 20 of the EMR countries
* Data on Female literacy represents 1990 estimates for Djibouti, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, United Arab Emirates and Yemen; ad 2004 estimates for Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, and Tunisia
€ Data on population living below poverty line reflects 1997 estimates for Jordan, 1998 for Iran and Yemen, 1999 for Libya and Oman, and 2000 for Egypt and Syria
¥ Data on per capita gross national income reflects 2003 estimates
£ Data on Total Expenditure on Health reflects 2003 estimates

ISSN: 1478-4491