Relationship between Democracy and Health Policies: A Study of 40 Countries and its Effect on Cancer Policies

Background: Many empirical studies report a positive association between democracy and health outcomes.However, no empirical study has explored the relationship between democracy and health policies.This study aimed to explore the relationship between democracy and the quality and comprehensiveness of National Cancer Control Plans (NCCPs) to make an argument in support of democracy.Methods: Panel data for 40 countries was created.Data was extracted and aligned for the year when the NCCP was last updated to capture the proximal effect of the independent and control variables on the NCCP score (Yw).NCCP scores were calculated via desk research, segmented into eleven dimensions.This was followed by expert weighting and geometric aggregation across the dimensions and analysis using R software.Results: Along the spectrum of democratic regimes from closed autocracy (CA) to liberal democracy (LD), the mean NCCP scores rose from 0.042 (0.015) for CA to 0.054 (0.012) for countries with LD.The model for Yw obtained with the bidirectional stepwise modeling technique had an adjusted R2 value of 0.424, with an overall p-value of <0.001.Conclusion: A higher degree of democracy in a country appears to be associated with a transparent and inclusive process that produces NCCPs of better quality and comprehensiveness.