Globalization is a phenomenon that has led to many economic, social, cultural and political changes in the international arena. Accordingly, this phenomenon has become a major challenge among health policy makers. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the influence of globalization on health, there is no consensus about the impact this phenomenon has on the health and policies that must be enforced against it.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of globalization on public health, using a sample of 144 developing countries over the period 1970-2009. The research methodology is based on panel data regression using Stata11 software. To this end, infant mortality rate, under-5 year old mortality rate, and life expectancy at birth were used as health indicators, and economic, social and political globalization indices were used as globalization indicators. In addition, the number of physicians per 1000 people and GDP per capital unit were used as control variables.
The results show that globalization leads to improvements in health indicators (infant mortality rate, the mortality rate for children under 5 years and the average life expectancy at birth). Also, the results reveal that the social dimension of globalization will have a greater effect on public health.
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