Supplementary Material

Table 1: Classification of countries by region and 2009 World Bank income group (categorized by GNIpc)

Low income / Lower middle-income / Upper middle-income
South and southeast Asia / Bangladesh
Cambodia
Nepal / India
Indonesia
Maldives
Pakistan
Philippines
Timor Leste
East and Southern Africa / Burundi
Ethiopia
Kenya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mozambique
Rwanda
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe / Lesotho
Swaziland / Namibia
Latin America & Caribbean / Haiti / Bolivia
Guyana
Honduras / Colombia
Dominican Republic
Peru
West, north, and central Africa / Benin
Burkina Faso
Congo Democratic Republic
Ghana
Guinea
Liberia
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Sierra Leone / Cameroon
Congo (Brazzaville)
Cote d’Ivoire
Egypt
Nigeria
Sao Tome & Principe / Gabon

Table 2: Univariate meta-regression estimates for the association between country-level socioeconomic and health system indicators and mean NMR

All countries / Low income countries / Middle income countries
Coefficient
(95% CI) / Adjusted R-squared / Coefficient
(95% CI) / Adjusted R-squared / Coefficient
(95% CI) / Adjusted R-squared
Country-level predictor
Log of GNI per capita / -5.0 (-7.7, -2.4) / 25.8% / -1.8 (-5.5, 1.8) / -1.3% / -14.0 (-22.4, -5.5) / 37.4%
Gini Index (estimate for a 10-point increase) / -1.8 (-4.8, 1.1) / 1.6% / -0.8 (-3.0, 1.5) / -4.5% / -2.1 (-7.9, 3.8) / -2.1%
Log of health expenditure per capita / -6.0 (-8.9, -3.1) / 30.8% / -3.3 (-7.5, 0.8) / 4.6% / -10.5 (-17.8, 3.1) / 29.5%
Out-of pocket expenditure as % total health expenditure (estimate for a 10% increase) / 1.2 (-0.2, 2.7) / 5.4% / 0.4 (-0.7, 1.5) / -4.9% / 1.7 (-0.9, 4.3) / 5.6%
Log of number of doctors per 1000 people / -2.5 (-4.3, -0.7) / 14.9% / -0.2 (-2.2, 1.9) / -6.7% / -4.2 (-8.9, 0.5) / 11.2%
Log of number of nurses/midwives per 1000 people / -3.9 (-6.3, -1.5) / 18.8% / -1.4 (-3.7, 1.0) / 3.0% / -6.5 (-12.7, -0.3) / 15.6%
Mean years of education (women age 15-49) / -1.4 (-2.3, -0.5) / 18.0% / -0.1 (-1.0, 0.9) / -6.1% / -2.5 (-4.9, -0.1) / 18.1%
Adolescent fertility rate (births per 100 women age 15-19) / 0.5(-0.1, 1.1) / 7.2% / 0.1 (-0.3, 0.5) / -6.9% / 0.9 (-0.7, 2.5) / 2.3%
Antenatal care (%) (estimate for a 10% increase) / -2.6 (-3.6, -1.6) / 41.0% / -0.1 (-1.3, 1.1) / -6.0% / -4.9 (-6.7, -3.1) / 64.9%
Facility delivery (%) (estimate for a 10% increase) / -2.1 (-3.1, -1.1) / 28.4% / -0.9 (-1.8, -0.0) / 20.3% / -2.8 (-4.9, -0.7) / 25.3%
Caesarean delivery (%) (estimate for a 1% increase) / -0.5 (-0.7, -0.2) / 29.2% / -0.2 (-0.8, 0.5) / -6.7% / -0.5 (-0.9, -0.1) / 20.5%

Figure 1: Bubble plots of the association between relative and absolute NMR inequality and mean NMR (N=48)

Negative RIIs and SIIs indicate pro-rich inequality in NMR. Bubble size proportional to the precision (inverse variance) of country-specific estimates.