Long-term trends and recent upturns in regional mortality variations in Greece

Abstract

Great regional variations in mortality within a country reflect unequal social and economic development and an ineffective health system. On the other hand, small mortality variations from one region to another indicate more homogeneous development and a relatively equal access to the national health system. Greece has made remarkable progress in this respect over the last 35 years. The current paper documents this progress in two ways: firstly, by inspecting regional variations in infant and in general mortality from 1981 onwards and second by associating indexes of economic and social development of each region with its level of mortality. A gradual convergence of the mortality rates across the country and a consequent de-association of the per capita income from the mortality level of an area point to a more effective welfare system over the examined period. The only ambivalent period is that of 2009-2014, where no progress is recorded in infant mortality, probably because of the cuts in public health spending, stemming from an acute economic crisis which started in
2009.