International Comparison of Health Indicators: A Data Analysis Report

This report presents a comparative analysis of health indicators across the USA, Philippines, and Burkina Faso, utilizing data from the World Health Organization's database spanning from 1960 to 2015. The analysis focuses on three key health indicators: infant mortality rate, crude death rate, and adolescent fertility rate. The report provides descriptive statistics, including mean, standard deviation, and range, for each indicator in each country. Time series plots are used to visualize trends, revealing declines in infant mortality and adolescent fertility across all three countries, though with varying rates. The crude death rate shows a consistent decline in the US, while the Philippines remains relatively stable. Burkina Faso experienced a decline in the crude death rate before leveling off. The report highlights significant differences in health outcomes among the countries, emphasizing the importance of understanding these trends for global health initiatives. The report also includes references to relevant literature and databases. This report is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib, a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

Running Head: INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON OF DATA 1
International Comparison of Data
Name
Institution
Instructor
26th September 2017

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON OF DATA 2
Introduction
In this report, we present a comparison of three health indicator data for three countries. The
three countries are USA, Philippines and Burkina Faso. Data was obtained from the World
Health Organization database. We looked at the trends in the mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live
births), death rate, crude (per 1,000 people) and adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women
ages 15-19). The World Health Organization’s “Statistical Information System” is an interactive
database that allows you to compare health indicators for multiple countries (Shi & Singh, 2015).
Time series data spanning from 1960 through to 2015 was used to make the comparisons as well
as the trend analysis.
Comparison of Health indicators
Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births)
The first health indicator we looked at was the mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births). Table
1 below gives the descriptive statistics of the data.
Table 1: Descriptive statistics on mortality rate
United
States
Burkina
Faso
Philippines
Mean 12.38 111.99 43.13
Standard Error 0.85 3.93 1.87
Median 10.10 104.55 45.75
Mode 6.90 102.40 54.40
Standard Deviation 6.37 29.44 13.97
Sample Variance 40.62 866.67 195.22
Kurtosis -0.69 -1.03 -1.49
Skewness 0.83 0.10 -0.04
Range 20.30 100.40 45.70
Minimum 5.60 60.90 22.20
Maximum 25.90 161.30 67.90
Sum 693 6271.2 2415.5

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Count 56 56 56
Confidence Level (95.0%) 1.71 7.88 3.74
The average mortality rate over the 56 year period for the United States was 12.38. The mortality
rate for the infants was highest in Burkina Faso having an average of 111.99. Philippines on the
other hand an average mortality rate of 43.13. This shows that over the period, the US has been
performing much better in containing the infant mortality as compared to the other two countries
(United Health Foundation, 2014).
Figure 1: Time series trend of mortality rate
The time series plot shows that the mortality rate has been on a decline for all the three countries.
However, the rate of decline has been much higher for Burkina Faso probably because they have
had a much higher rate compared to the other countries. United States on the other hand has had
a very low decline rate (Medical News Today, 2014).

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON OF DATA 4
Death rate, crude (per 1,000 people)
We also looked at the death rate, crude (per 1,000 people). As can be seen in table 2 below, the
death rate was highest in the United States (M = 18.45, SD = 5.54) and lowest in Burkina Faso
(M = 7.52, SD = 1.55). Philippines had an average death rate of 8.75 over the period.
Table 2: Descriptive statistics on mortality rate
United
States
Burkina
Faso
Philippines
Mean 18.45 7.52 8.75
Standard Error 0.74 0.21 0.07
Median 17.11 6.89 8.70
Mode #N/A 5.92 8.80
Standard Deviation 5.54 1.55 0.49
Sample Variance 30.67 2.40 0.24
Kurtosis -0.92 -0.58 -0.77
Skewness 0.15 0.76 0.35
Range 19.74 5.26 1.90
Minimum 8.82 5.92 7.90
Maximum 28.56 11.18 9.80
Sum 1032.93 420.96 489.90
Count 56 56 56
Confidence Level (95.0%) 1.483043 0.414932 0.130397
Figure 2: Time series trend of crude death rate

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The plot in figure 2 above shows a consistent decline in the crude death rate in the United States
for the last 56 years while Philippines has remained more or less the same over the same period
of time. Burkina Faso on the other hand slightly dropped between the years 1960 and 1990
before remaining more or less the same (World Health Organization, 2013).
Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19)
On average, the fertility rate for the United States was lowest (M = 53.09, SD = 14.05) though it
was slightly lower than Burkina Faso (M = 55.08, SD = 4.74). Philippines had the highest
adolescent fertility rate (M = 151.24, SD = 20.68)
Table 3: Descriptive statistics on mortality rate
United
States
Burkina
Faso
Philippine
s
Mean 53.09 55.08 151.24
Standard Error 1.88 0.63 2.76
Median 52.84 54.02 149.64
Mode #N/A 50.99 #N/A
Standard Deviation 14.05 4.74 20.68
Sample Variance 197.52 22.51 427.53
Kurtosis 0.19 -0.23 -0.81
Skewness 0.04 0.87 -0.29
Range 63.83 17.22 77.50
Minimum 21.15 49.06 107.15
Maximum 84.99 66.28 184.65
Sum 2972.90 3084.61 8469.28
Count 56 56 56
Confidence Level
(95.0%)
3.76 1.27 5.54

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Figure 3: Time series trend of crude death rate
In figure 3 above, we present the trend analysis of the adolescent fertility rate for the three
countries. It can be seen that the adolescent fertility rate in Philippines has been on a continuous
decline same for the United States (apart from the period between mid-1970 and mid-1980).
Burkina Faso on the other hand has had a decline in the adolescent fertility rate between the
years 1960 and 1970 before it remained more or less constant till around the year 2000. It then
began to rise though minimally in the mid-2000 (Farmer , 2001).
Conclusion
This paper sought to resent a comparison of three health indicators for three different countries.
Results have shown that the health indicators vary across the three countries with some countries
having higher indicator rates for some health indicators and lower for some. Time series plot has
also helped visualize the trends in the health indicators for the three different countries.

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References
Farmer , P. (2001). The major infectious diseases in the world—to treat or not to treat? 345(3),
208–10.
Medical News Today. (2014). What are the top 10 leading causes of death in the US?
Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2015). Delivering health care in America: A systems approach (6th ed.).
Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
United Health Foundation. (2014). America’s health rankings.
White , F., & Nanan , D. J. (2008). International and Global Health.
World Health Organization. (2013). Sustaining the drive to overcome the global impact of
neglected tropical diseases: second WHO report on neglected tropical diseases.