Early riser, late bloomer: Contextualizing Turkish health achievements in the last 50 yearsvis-à-visChina and the global picture of development

Abstract

Where does Turkey’s performance in the health dimension of the Preston Curve stand with regard to comparable countries on the development ladder? When one observes the chronological progression of health and wealth values embedded in the Preston Curve for developing countries, one sees a near monotonic increase across the board, with only a very small number of downwardly mobile countries. In the face of this near-universal increase in health and wealth values, it is necessary to adopt a more comparative perspective in order to situate the Turkish state’s choices and performance within the general story playing out for developing countries in the second half of the 20th century. Utilizing just such a comparative framework, this article uses China’s experience between 1960 and 2010 as an alternative through which to understand Turkey’s development experience.

Application of a breakpoint model to population growth in Türkiye

“…It is evident that infant and child mortality decline was very rapid in the remote past compared to the recent past. A lot of literature discusses great improvements of these events in Türkiye during this period (Özen, 2018;Dumont, 2011;Seçkin, 2009). In addition, the decline of the mortality rate in Türkiye from the middle of the 2000s according to Durmus (2022) may be a result of several factors that could explain this phenomenon, such as the reforms in the health system in Türkiye, introducing to a significant improvements in healthcare organization, resource management, and health service delivery to be provided equitable access to quality health services for all since the middle of the 2000s.…”