An inter-province Analysis of Health Infrastructure Disparities in Afghanistan

Abstract

Health is a crucial element in human life and directly affects labour productivity. The health of its citizens significantly impacts the socio-economic development of every country or region. The connection between socioeconomic development and health is intricately linked and profoundly impacts one another. An adequate healthcare infrastructure is strongly associated with enhancing the overall health status of a population. This study's main objective is to identify the discrepancies in health infrastructure across different provinces of Afghanistan in 2020 by constructing a health infrastructure index. We utilised Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to create a composite index for health infrastructure, incorporating seven physical and human resource health infrastructure indicators. Based on the investigation, the province of Nooristan has been ranked first in the health infrastructure index (HII), which falls under the highly developed category. On the other hand, Faryab province has been ranked last and falls under the highly backward category along with four other provinces, including Badghis, Kandahar, Herat, and Paktika. Additionally, three other provinces, namely Logar, Panjsher, and Bamyan, have been categorised as developed provinces and come after Nooristan. The remaining twenty-five provinces have been classified under the "Backward" category. As per the study, there are significant differences in the health infrastructure of Afghanistan's provinces. The health infrastructure index (HII) value ranges from 0.151394 to 0.80448. Furthermore, 88 per cent of the country's provinces are classified as backward and highly backward, indicating that the health infrastructure in this country is generally in very poor condition.