Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific 2018

Chapter 1. Country dashboards

The aim of this chapter is to show a set of key indicators to compare performance across countries in each of the following dimensions:

• Health status

• Risk factors for health

• Quality of care

• Health care resources

For each dimension, a set of 4-5 indicators is presented in the form of country dashboards. The indicators are selected based on their policy relevance, but also on data availability and interpretability. Indicators where coverage is highest are therefore prioritised.

In order to assess comparative performance across countries, each country is classified for every indicator based on how they compare against the income group-specific median. Therefore, countries significantly above/below their respective group will be classified as better/worse than average (▲/▼), with the remaining countries classified as close to the average (⦿). This applies to all indicators, with a caveat for the dashboard on health care resources: given the nature of the indicators presented, whereas they cannot be classified as better or worse performance, the arrows simply imply that the values are significantly higher or lower than the median. The dashboard on quality of care does not split the countries across income groups due to data coverage limitations.

Methodology

In order to allow for cross-country comparisons of performance, countries are split according to their income group (high income, upper-middle income, lower-middle and low income). The central tendency measures presented, for all indicators and income groups, are medians.

In order to classify countries as “better than”, “close to”, or “worse than” the central tendency of any indicator, a measure of statistical dispersion is needed to compute the reasonable range for values close to the central tendency value, with anything above or below classified accordingly. The preferred measure is the Median Absolute Deviation (MAD), since it is a robust measure that is both more efficient and less biased than a simple standard deviation when outliers are present.

Countries are classified as “better than median” if they lie above the median + 1 MAD, “worse than median” if they lie below the median – 1 MAD, and “close to the median” if they lie within ± 1 MAD from the median.

Health status

The five indicators used to compare health status are life expectancy at birth for males (2016), life expectancy at birth for females (2016), survival to age 65 for males (2016), survival to age 65 for females (2016), and under age 5 mortality rate per 1 000 live births (2016).

Table 1.1. Dashboard on health status

▲ Better than ⦿ Close to ▼ Worse than					group-specific central tendency
Country	LE (M) at birth		LE (F) at birth		Survival to age 65 (M)		Survival to age 65 (F)		Under age 5 mortality rate
	In years		In years		%		%		Per 1 000 live births
High income	80.6		84.9		88.8		93.9		3.4
Australia	81	▲	84.8	⦿	89.5	▲	93.6	▼	3.7	⦿
Brunei Darussalam	75.3	▼	77.6	▼	83.6	▼	88.2	▼	9.9	▼
Hong Kong, China	81.2	▲	86.8	▲	89.3	⦿	94.4	▲	2.5	▲
Japan	81.1	⦿	87.1	▲	88.3	⦿	94.1	⦿	2.7	⦿
Korea, Rep.	79.5	▼	85.6	⦿	87.0	▼	94.3	▲	3.4	⦿
Macau, China	78.4	▼	82.8	▼	90.2	▲	95.9	▲
New Zealand	80.5	⦿	84	⦿	88.5	⦿	92.0	▼	5.4	▼
Singapore	80.8	⦿	85	⦿	89.6	▲	93.6	⦿	2.8	⦿
Upper-middle income	72.5		77.7		74.5		86.0		11.0
China	75	▲	77.9	⦿	83.5	▲	87.8	▲	9.9	⦿
Fiji	67.1	▼	73.1	▼	64.9	▼	78.3	▼	22.0	▼
Malaysia	73.2	⦿	77.6	⦿	76.5	⦿	86.2	▲	8.3	▲
Thailand	71.8	⦿	79.3	▲	72.6	⦿	85.8	⦿	12.2	⦿
Lower-middle & low income	67.3		71.6		67.2		77.2		30.6
Bangladesh	71.1	▲	74.4	▲	73.0	▲	79.2	⦿	34.2	⦿
Cambodia	67.3	⦿	71.2	⦿	67.3	⦿	76.6	⦿	30.6	⦿
India	67.4	⦿	70.3	⦿	66.8	⦿	74.7	▼	43.0	▼
Indonesia	67.3	⦿	71.4	⦿	67.1	⦿	76.5	⦿	26.4	⦿
Korea, DPR	67	⦿	74	⦿					20.0	▲
Lao PDR	64.2	▼	67.4	▼	65.0	⦿	71.8	▼	63.9	▼
Mongolia	65.7	⦿	74.2	▲	58.6	▼	78.6	⦿	17.9	▲
Myanmar	64.6	▼	68.9	▼	63.3	⦿	72.8	▼	50.8	▼
Nepal	68.8	⦿	71.6	⦿	71.4	▲	78.1	⦿	34.5	⦿
Pakistan	65.7	⦿	67.4	▼	67.6	⦿	72.4	▼	78.8	▼
Papua New Guinea	63.6	▼	68.3	▼	58.8	▼	68.8	▼	54.3	▼
Philippines	66.2	⦿	72.6	⦿	61.6	▼	77.9	⦿	27.1	⦿
Solomon Islands	69.7	▲	72.7	⦿	72.4	▲	78.8	⦿	25.8	⦿
Sri Lanka	72.1	▲	78.5	▲	73.1	▲	87.8	▲	9.4	▲
Viet Nam	71.7	▲	80.9	▲	73.1	▲	88.0	▲	21.6	⦿

Risk factors

The five indicators used to compare risk factors are the age-standardised prevalence estimates for daily tobacco smoking among persons aged 15 and above (2015), recorded alcohol consumption in litres per capita among persons aged 15 and above (2015), the share of population with access to basic sanitation (2015), the share of population with access to basic drinking water (2015) and the prevalence of overweight among adolescent (crude estimates, 2016).

Table 1.2. Dashboard on risk factors for health

▲ Better than ⦿ Close to ▼ Worse than					group-specific central tendency
Country	Smoking		Alcohol consumption		Access to basic sanitation		Access to basic drinking water		Adolescents overweight
	% of daily smokers		Liters per capita		% population		% population		% population aged 10-19 years
High income	14.7		6.8		100		100		25.0
Australia	13.4	⦿	9.7	▼	100	⦿	100	⦿	33.1	▼
Brunei Darussalam	13.2	▲	1.0	▲	96	▼	100	⦿	25.1	⦿
Hong Kong, China	14.9	⦿	2.8	▲	96	▼	100	⦿
Japan	19.1	▼	7.6	⦿	100	⦿	99	⦿	12.7	▲
Korea, Rep.	22.1	▼	9.3	⦿	100	⦿	100	⦿	24.9	⦿
Macau, China	25.1	▼	6.1	⦿			100	⦿
New Zealand	14.6	⦿	8.7	⦿	100	⦿	100	⦿	38.2	▼
Singapore	13.3	▲	1.8	▲	100	⦿	100	⦿	21.2	⦿
Upper-middle income	17.1		4.0		95		96		25.3
China	22.4	▼	5.8	⦿	75	▼	96	⦿	25.2	⦿
Fiji	14.9	▲	2.3	⦿	96	⦿	94	▼	33	▼
Malaysia	17.4	⦿	0.5	▲	100	▲	96	⦿	25.3	⦿
Thailand	16.9	⦿	6.4	▼	95	⦿	98	▲	20.4	▲
Lower-middle & low income	18.7		2.1		59		88		11.4
Bangladesh	20.4	⦿			47	⦿	97	▲	8.4	▲
Cambodia	15.5	⦿	2.1	⦿	49	⦿	75	▼	10.4	⦿
India	10.5	▲	3.1	⦿	44	▼	88	⦿	6.3	▲
Indonesia	33.6	▼			68	⦿	90	⦿	14.2	▼
Korea, DPR			3.4	⦿	77	▲	100	▲
Lao PDR	25.1	▼	5.4	▼			80	⦿	12.5	⦿
Mongolia	22.2	▼	5.8	▼	59	⦿	83	⦿	16.7	▼
Myanmar	16.2	⦿	0.7	⦿	65	⦿	68	▼	10.7	⦿
Nepal	17.6	⦿	0.3	▲	46	⦿	88	⦿	7	▲
Pakistan	10.3	⦿			58	⦿	89	⦿	9.2	⦿
Papua New Guinea	31.1	▼	0.9	⦿	19	▼	37	▼	30.6	▼
Philippines	18.9	⦿	4.5	▼	75	▲	91	⦿	12	⦿
Solomon Islands			1.0	⦿	31	▼	64	▼	23.6	▼
Sri Lanka	9.9	▲	2.4	⦿	94	▲	92	▲	12	⦿
Viet Nam	18.7	⦿	4.1	▼	78	▲	91	⦿	8.6	▲

Quality of care

The five indicators used to compare quality of care are the five-year net survival rate for breast cancer, cervical cancer and colon cancer among persons aged 15 and above (2014), and vaccination rates for diphtheria tetanus toxoid and pertussis (DTP3) and measles (MCV) among children aged around 1 (2016).

Table 1.3. Dashboard on quality of care

▲ Better than ⦿ Close to ▼ Worse than					central tendency
Country	Breast cancer		Cervical cancer		Colon cancer		DTP3		MCV
	Five-year survival rate		Five-year survival rate		Five-year survival rate		Coverage (%)		Coverage (%)
Median	83.2		66.1		59.7		96		95
Australia	89.5	▲	66.4	⦿	70.7	▲	94	⦿	95	⦿
Bangladesh							97	⦿	94	⦿
Brunei Darussalam							99	▲	98	⦿
Cambodia							90	▼	81	▼
China	83.2	⦿	67.6	⦿	57.6	⦿	99	▲	99	▲
Fiji							99	▲	94	⦿
Hong Kong, China	83.3	⦿	65.8	⦿	56.4	⦿
India	66.1	▼	59.0	▼	38.9	▼	88	▼	88	▼
Indonesia							79	▼	76	▼
Japan	89.4	▲	71.4	▲	67.8	▲	99	▲	96	⦿
Korea, DPR							96	⦿	99	▲
Korea, Rep.	86.6	⦿	77.3	▲	71.8	▲	98	⦿	98	⦿
Lao PDR							82	▼	76	▼
Macau, China
Malaysia	65.0	▼	57.1	▼	55.9	⦿	98	⦿	96	⦿
Mongolia	76.1	▼					99	▲	98	⦿
Myanmar							90	▼	91	⦿
Nepal							87	▼	83	▼
New Zealand	87.6	⦿	67.4	⦿	64.0	⦿	92	▼	92	⦿
Pakistan							72	▼	61	▼
Papua New Guinea							72	▼	70	▼
Philippines							86	▼	80	▼
Singapore	80.3	⦿	63.4	⦿	61.7	⦿	97	⦿	95	⦿
Solomon Islands							99	▲	99	▲
Sri Lanka							99	▲	99	▲
Thailand	68.7	▼	53.9	▼	47.0	▼	99	▲	99	▲
Viet Nam							96	⦿	99	▲

Health care resources

The four indicators used to compare health care resources are health expenditure per capita in USD international (2015), the share of out-of-pocket spending in total current health spending (2015), the per capita expenditure on pharmaceuticals in USD international (2015) and the number of hospital beds per 1 000 population (2016).

Table 1.4. Dashboard on health care resources

▲ Better than ⦿ Close to ▼ Worse than					group-specific central tendency
Country	Health spending		Out-of-pocket		Pharma spending		Beds per 1 000 population
	USD international per capita		Share of health spending		USD international per capita		Number
High income	3 605.7		19.6		564.8		3.3
Australia	4 491.6	▲	19.6	⦿	616.8	⦿	3.8	⦿
Brunei Darussalam	2 083.4	▼	6.0	▼			2.8	⦿
Hong Kong, China							4.0	⦿
Japan	4 405.1		13.1	⦿	792.5	▲	13.1	▲
Korea, Rep.	2 556.0	▼	36.8	▲	512.8	⦿	12.0	▲
Macau, China							2.5	▼
New Zealand	3 530.1	⦿					2.7	⦿
Singapore	3 681.3	⦿	31.6	▲	232.7	▼	1.8	▼
Upper-middle income	686.2		26.9		189.9		2.2
China	762.2	⦿	32.4	⦿	332.8	▲	5.4	▲
Fiji	331.4	▼	21.4	⦿	47.1	▼	2.3	⦿
Malaysia	1 063.9	▲	36.7	▲			1.3	▼
Thailand	610.2	⦿	11.8	▼			2.1	⦿
Lower-middle & low income	223.7		50.9		59.9		1.2
Bangladesh	88.0	▼	71.8	▲	42.9	⦿	0.8	⦿
Cambodia	209.6	⦿	59.4	⦿	64.8	⦿	0.8	⦿
India	237.7	⦿	65.1	▲			0.7	▼
Indonesia	369.3	▲	48.3	⦿			1.2	⦿
Korea, DPR							14.3	▲
Lao PDR	165.8	⦿	45.4	⦿	23.4	▼	1.5	⦿
Mongolia	469.6	▲	39.3	⦿	60.6	⦿	7.0	▲
Myanmar	267.2	⦿	73.9	▲	111.5	▲	0.9	⦿
Nepal	150.6	⦿	60.4	⦿	59.1	⦿	1.2	⦿
Pakistan	134.4	⦿	66.5	▲	32.2	▼	0.6	▼
Papua New Guinea	98.6	▼	5.8	▼
Philippines	322.8	▲	53.5	⦿	137.8	▲	0.5	▼
Solomon Islands	173.0	⦿	3.3	▼	25.6	▼	1.4	⦿
Sri Lanka	353.1	▲	38.4	▼			3.8	▲
Viet Nam	334.3	▲	43.5	⦿	66.9	⦿	2.6	▲