TY - JOUR
T1 - The Role of Public Health Expenditures in COVID-19 control
T2 - Evidence from Local Governments in England
AU - Acharya, Arnab
AU - Wolfson, Carrie
AU - Matta, Sasmira
AU - Cardona, Carolina
AU - Lamba, Sneha
AU - Bishai, David
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by a grant from the Hopkins Population Center ( Johns Hopkins University ) and by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Systems for Action Research Program (grant 78116).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - For over 150 years the local health departments of England have been critical in controlling 19th and 20th century infectious epidemics. However, recent administrative changes have hollowed out their flexibility to serve communities. We use administrative data on past budgetary allocations per capita to public health departments at upper tier local areas (UTLAs) of England to examine whether public health funding levels were correlated with more rapid control of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic between March and July of 2020. The dependent variable was the number of days between a UTLA's 10th case of COVID-19 and the day when new cases per 100,000 peaked and began to decline. Our models controlled for regional socio-economic factors. We found no correlation between local public health expenditure and the speed of control of COVID-19. However, overall public expenditure allocated to improve local areas helped reduce time to reach peak. Contrary to expectation, more dense areas such as London experienced shorter duration. Higher income areas had more rapid success in accelerating the time of the first peak in the first wave of their local COVID-19 incidence. We contribute to understanding the impact of how public expenditure and socio-economic factors affect an epidemic.
AB - For over 150 years the local health departments of England have been critical in controlling 19th and 20th century infectious epidemics. However, recent administrative changes have hollowed out their flexibility to serve communities. We use administrative data on past budgetary allocations per capita to public health departments at upper tier local areas (UTLAs) of England to examine whether public health funding levels were correlated with more rapid control of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic between March and July of 2020. The dependent variable was the number of days between a UTLA's 10th case of COVID-19 and the day when new cases per 100,000 peaked and began to decline. Our models controlled for regional socio-economic factors. We found no correlation between local public health expenditure and the speed of control of COVID-19. However, overall public expenditure allocated to improve local areas helped reduce time to reach peak. Contrary to expectation, more dense areas such as London experienced shorter duration. Higher income areas had more rapid success in accelerating the time of the first peak in the first wave of their local COVID-19 incidence. We contribute to understanding the impact of how public expenditure and socio-economic factors affect an epidemic.
KW - COVID 19 incidences in local areas in england
KW - Days to reach peak infection incidence
KW - Determinants of duration to reach peak
KW - Governance and socio-economic factors
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100861
DO - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100861
M3 - Article
C2 - 34230891
AN - SCOPUS:85110181999
SN - 2352-8273
VL - 15
JO - SSM - Population Health
JF - SSM - Population Health
M1 - 100861
ER -