The impact of the AIDS pandemic on health services in Africa: Evidence from Demographic Health Surveys

Anne Case () and Christina Paxson
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Christina Paxson: Princeton University

No 1139, Working Papers from Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies.

Abstract: We document the impact of the AIDS crisis on non-AIDS related health services in fourteen sub-Saharan African countries. Using multiple waves of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for each country, we examine antenatal care, birth deliveries, and rates of immunization for children born between 1988 and 2005. We find deterioration in nearly all of these dimensions of health care over this period. The most recent DHS survey for each country collected data on HIV prevalence, which allows us to examine the association between HIV burden and health care. We find that erosion of health services is highly correlated with increases in AIDS prevalence. Regions of countries that have light AIDS burdens have witnessed small or no declines in health care, using the measures noted above, while those regions currently shouldering the heaviest burdens have seen the largest erosion in treatment for pregnant women and children. Using semi-parametric techniques, we can date the beginning of the divergence in health services between high and low HIV regions to the mid-1990s.

Keywords: AIDS; Africa; children; health care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I00 I18 I38 J13 C01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-03

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pri:rpdevs:1139

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