The health care sector in the economies of the European Union: an overview using an input-output framework.

Background: This study aims to analyse the relative importance of the health care sector (health care activities and services), its interrelations with the rest of productive activities, aggregate supply and demand, employment requirements and apparent labour productivity in the European Union (EU) economy as a whole, and in the economies of member countries.

Methods: The methodology used is based on input-output analysis. Data are extracted from National Accounts and, specifically, from the input-output framework for 2010.

Economic crisis and obesity in the Canary Islands: an exploratory study through the relationship between body mass index and educational level.

Background: The Canary Islands is one of the Spanish Regions with the highest obesity prevalence, and one of the Autonomous Communities that was hit hard by the economic crisis that arrived to Spain in 2008. This research studies the education-related inequalities in adult obesity in the Canary Islands and their evolution in recent years, considering the possible impact of the economic recession.

Methods: A repeated cross-sectional analysis is carried out with data obtained from the Canary Islands Health Surveys of 2004, 2009 and 2015.

Hospital productivity bias when not adjusting for cost heterogeneity: The case of Spain.

This research quantifies the bias caused in hospital productivity measurements when cost heterogeneity is not considered. A multi-output stochastic cost frontier under a normalised translog specification is used to approximate the structure of technology of a sample of public general hospitals in Spain during the period 2002-2009. To control for observable heterogeneity in costs, a set of variables related to hospital characteristics are included in the cost frontier specification (i.

The effect of a change in co-payment on prescription drug demand in a National Health System: The case of 15 drug families by price elasticity of demand.

Objectives: To test the heterogeneity of the effect of a change in pharmaceutical cost-sharing by therapeutic groups in a Spanish region.

Methods: Data: random sample (provided by the Canary Islands Health Service) of 40,471 people covered by the Spanish National Health System (SNHS) in the Canary Islands. The database includes individualised monthly-dispensed medications (prescribed by the SNHS) from one year before (August 2011) to one year after (June 2013) the Royal Decree Law 16/2012 (RDL 16/2012).

Socioeconomic differences in body mass index in Spain: An intersectional multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy.

Many studies have demonstrated the existence of simple, unidimensional socioeconomic gradients in body mass index (BMI). However, in the present paper we move beyond such traditional analyses by simultaneously considering multiple demographic and socioeconomic dimensions. Using the Spanish National Health Survey 2011-2012, we apply intersectionality theory and multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA) to analyze 14,190 adults nested within 108 intersectional strata defined by combining categories of gender, age, income, educational achievement and living situation.