Capacity Building and Financing Oral Health in the African and Middle East Region

Many low- and middle-income countries do not yet have policies to implement effective oral health programs. A reason is lack of human and financial resources. Gaps between resource needs and available health funding are widening. By building capacity, countries aim to improve oral health through actions by oral health care personnel and oral health care organizations and their communities. Capacity building involves achieving measurable and sustainable results in training, research, and provision of care. Actions include advancement of knowledge, attitudes and skills, expansion of support, and development of cohesiveness and partnerships. The aim of this critical review is to review existing knowledge and identify gaps and variations between and within different income levels in relation to the capacity building and financing oral health in the African and Middle East region (AMER). A second aim is to formulate research priorities and outline a research agenda for capacity building and financing to improve oral health and reduce oral health inequalities in the AMER. The article focuses on capacity building for oral health and oral health financing in the AMER of the IADR. In many communities in the AMER, there are clear and widening gaps between the dental needs and the existing capacity to meet these needs in terms of financial and human resources. Concerted efforts are required to improve access to oral health care through appropriate financing mechanisms, innovative health insurance schemes, and donor support and move toward universal oral health care coverage to reduce social inequality in the region. It is necessary to build capacity and incentivize the workforce to render evidence-based services as well as accessing funds to conduct research on equity and social determinants of oral health while promoting community engagement and a multidisciplinary approach.

Effects of Immigrants, Health, and Ageing on Economic Growth in the European Union

Population ageing and low birth rates are two problems of the EU that have an impact on employment, production, and economic growth. Against this background, immigration, health expenditure, and the health of migrants must become a key element of European policy. For this reason, this paper focused on identifying the effect of immigration, health, and ageing on economic growth in order to highlight their importance from an economic perspective. We constructed different econometric models with Eurostat data for 27 countries and 13 years (2008-2020), whose dependent variable was gross domestic product. Independent variables were the number of immigrants by gender and age, health expenditure per capita (total and by function), immigrants' perception of their health as very good, and the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over. The model selected to analyze the results was Prais-Winsten regression heteroskedastic panels corrected standard errors modeled by applying the option (ar1) to correct for autocorrelation, using Stata software (version 16). The results show that health expenditure has a significant positive effect on economic growth, higher in hospital services, followed by medical products; immigrants' perception as very good is only significant in some models. The number of immigrants has a (positive) effect, although less significant than public expenditure on health. Its effect is larger when the immigrant is aged between 15 and 64 years and smaller for male immigrants than for female immigrants. Without the ageing variable, immigration is not significant. Moreover, there are significant differences between European countries in relation to the variables analyses (immigration, immigrants' perception of their health, ageing and public expenditure on health, and public expenditure on health according to function). This may be due to the different regulations on both immigration and public health in the countries that make up the European Union.