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. 2024 Oct 18;21(10):1379.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph21101379.

The Impact of Ecological Footprint, Urbanization, Education, Health Expenditure, and Industrialization on Child Mortality: Insights for Environment and Public Health in Eastern Europe

Gheorghe H Popescu  1   2 , Elvira Nica  3 , Tomas Kliestik  4 , Cristina Alpopi  3 , Ana-Madalina Potcovaru Bîgu  3 , Sorin-Cristian Niță  5
Affiliations

The Impact of Ecological Footprint, Urbanization, Education, Health Expenditure, and Industrialization on Child Mortality: Insights for Environment and Public Health in Eastern Europe

Gheorghe H Popescu et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the connection between child mortality in Eastern Europe and ecological footprint, urbanization, education, health expenditure, and industrialization. The study acknowledges the significance of understanding how these factors influence the infant mortality rates in this region from 1993 to 2022. The Grossman Health Outcome (H-O) model investigates the theoretical framework. For the existence of the cross-sectional dependency, mixed-order unit root, and cointegration problem, the famous Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) approach is applied. The research also used the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) to check robustness. The findings illustrated that health expenditure and education lessen the infant mortality rate in Eastern European countries. But ecological footprint, industrialization and unemployment raise the infant mortality rate. According to the CS-ARDL findings, expenditure on healthcare significantly reduces child mortality. Still, the ecological footprint significantly impacts increasing child mortality. However, the AMG and CCEMG models demonstrate that investing in education is the most effective strategy for reducing child mortality. Therefore, the government of Eastern European countries should provide more priorities in the sustainable urbanization, health expenditure, and education sectors. The robustness of the AMG and CCEMG also demonstrated the strength of the CS-ARDL findings. This research paper contributes to SDG 3 by examining the environmental and health factors that influence child mortality in Eastern Europe. Policymakers, public health professionals, and other stakeholders can use the findings to inform the development and implementation of programs that specifically target the identified causes of child mortality.

Keywords: Eastern Europe; child mortality; ecological footprint; environment; health expenditure; industrialization.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trend of under-5 mortality rate in Eastern Europe (1993–2022).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlation Heatmap of Socioeconomic and Health Indicators in Eastern Europe.
Figure 3
Figure 3
CSD statistics value with significant levels.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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The research did not receive any funding.

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