Commentary: Do health care workforce, population, and service provision significantly contribute to the total health expenditure? An econometric analysis of Serbia

No social distancing from food: How the COVID-19 pandemic shaped student food-related activities in the Western Balkans

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced food preparation and consumption habits, as well as food wastage. The pandemic also affected the lives of university students worldwide; their learning and living environments changed, influencing their eating habits.

AIM

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' food-related activities in four countries in the Western Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro.

METHODS

The research draws upon an online survey gathered through the SurveyMonkey platform in four Balkan countries-viz. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro-and used a structured questionnaire. The information was collected during the second wave of COVID-19 in October-November 2020. A total of 1658 valid responses were received. Descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests were used to analyze the survey findings.

RESULTS

The research results suggest that the pandemic influenced students' food purchase habits, diets, and food-related behaviors and practices such as food preparation, cooking, and food waste management at the household level. In particular, students have been eating healthier and shopping less frequently during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the pandemic improved their attitude toward food wastage.

CONCLUSION

This study is the first to examine how students in the Balkan region perceive the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their eating habits, laying the groundwork for future studies into the disease's consequences. This and other studies will assist in preparing students and education institutions for future calamities and pandemics. The findings will also help develop evidence-based postpandemic recovery options targeting youth and students in the Western Balkans.

Cold War Legacy in Public and Private Health Spending in Europe

Cold War Era (1946-1991) was marked by the presence of two distinctively different economic systems, namely the free-market (The Western ones) and central-planned (The Eastern ones) economies. The main goal of this study refers to the exploration of development pathways of Public and Private Health Expenditure in all of the countries of the European WHO Region. Based on the availability of fully comparable data from the National Health Accounts system, we adopted the 1995-2014 time horizon. All countries were divided into two groups: those defined in 1989 as free market economies and those defined as centrally-planned economies. We observed six major health expenditures: Total Health Expenditure (% of GDP), Total Health Expenditure (PPP unit), General government expenditure on health (PPP), Private expenditure on health (PPP), Social security funds (PPP) and Out-of-pocket expenditure (PPP). All of the numerical values used refer exclusively to per capita health spending. In a time-window from the middle of the 1990s towards recent years, total health expenditure was rising fast in both groups of countries. Expenditure on health % of GDP in both group of countries increased over time with the increase in the Free-market economies seen to be more rapid. The steeper level of total expenditure on health for the Free-market as of 1989 market economies, is due mainly to a steep increase in both the government and private expenditure on health relative to spending by centrally-planned economies as of the same date, with the out-of-pocket expenditure and the social security funds in the same market economies category following the same steepness. Variety of governments were leading Eastern European countries into their transitional health care reforms. We may confirm clear presence of obvious divergent upward trends in total governmental and private health expenditures between these two groups of countries over the past two decades. The degree of challenge to the fiscal sustainability of these health systems will have to be judged for each single nation, in line with its own local circumstances and perspectives.