Keywords: Turkey, health, policy, sustainable development, SDGs
Background: On September 2015, countries adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. SDGs include a specific health goal: “Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages” (SDG3). As a member of the United Nations, Turkey also aims to achieve SDGs including health-related goals. This study aimed to review Turkey’s current situation with respect to health-related SDGs and indicators to inform future policy making.
Methods: This study used available data from the World Health Statistics 2017 for more than 50 health indicators, which were selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) across more than 10 goals. These indicators were then reviewed in seven thematic areas proposed by the WHO. The rankings were based on 53 countries in the WHO European Region.
Results: ∙Reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health: Turkey ranked above the (regional) average for neonatal mortality, under-five mortality, child stunting, vaccine coverage, and adolescent birth rate, around the average for maternal mortality, and below the average for child wasting, births attended by skilled health personnel, and met need for family planning in the region.
∙Communicable diseases: Turkey ranked below the average for new HIV, tuberculosis and neglected tropical infections, and above the average for Hepatitis B vaccine coverage.
∙Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health: Turkey ranked around the average for tobacco smoking and probability of dying from NCDs, and below the average for suicide mortality rate and alcohol consumption.
∙Injuries and violence: Turkey ranked below the average for road traffic death rate and homicide-related mortality.
∙Universal health coverage and health systems: Turkey ranked below the average for catastrophic health spending, development assistance to medical research and basic health sectors, government expenditure on health, hospital beds, density of physicians, and other skilled health professionals.
∙Environmental risks: Turkey ranked below the average for mortality rate from unintentional poisoning and proportion of population with clean household energy, around the average for mortality rate attributed to air pollution and unsafe WASH services, and above the average for ambient air pollution.
∙Health risks and disease outbreaks: Turkey ranked below the average for completeness of cause-of-death data and health emergency preparedness and above the average for death rate due to natural disasters. There was no data available for implementation of International Health Regulations.
Turkey ranked 48th out of 149 countries in the overall SDG Index, and was found to be below the average for SDG3 index score among the OECD countries.
Conclusions and Recommendations: Despite strong efforts and improving results, Turkey’s status with respect to health-related SGDs in the WHO European region still needs improvement. Current statistics indicate that promoting reproductive, newborn and child health, training of health professionals, increasing access to healthcare, improving emergency preparedness and availability of health-related data, decreasing ambient air pollution and increasing access to clean household energy should be priority areas for Turkey in achieving health-related SGDs. On its way to 2030, Turkey’s health policies and reforms should be based on pre-defined indicators and priority areas, with sustainable partnerships to achieve health in all policies.
8b. Health and well-being
