Association of Gross Domestic Product with Under-Five Mortality Rate and Life Expectancy During 1990 - 2015 in Iran: An Ecological Study

Background: Under-five mortality and life expectancy are two important health indicators that may be associated with GDP. Thus, the evaluation of the relationship between these indicators can be important in health planning. Objectives: Due to the lack of such study in Iran, the current study aimed to assess the correlation of under-five mortality and life expectancy with GDP in Iran during 1990 - 2015. Methods: In this ecological study, all data were extracted from the Gapminder website. The data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient at α = 0.05 as the significance level. All analyses were done using Stata14 and Excel 2010 software. Results: During the study period (1990 - 2015), the life expectancy and GDP were increasing and under-five mortality was decreasing. The correlation of GDP with life expectancy and under-five mortality resulted in r = 0.94 (P < 0.001) and r = -0.95 (P < 0.001), respectively. Conclusions: Considering the correlation of GDP with life expectancy and under-five mortality, the share of GDP allocated to the health sector should be increased to improve these indices in Iran.