Comparison of the Bulut Index-Beta method and Global Health Security Index: results from the world’s countries

Background/aim: The Global Health Security Index (GHSI), which is used to assess the global health security preparedness levels of countries, and the Bulut Index-Beta (BI-β) method, developed as a multicriteria decision-making method, were compared in terms of global health security in the context of the world’s countries. It was aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of the BI-β method by testing it on GHSI datasets and contribute to the methodological development of the GHSI. Materials and methods: The datasets used in this study were the publicly available GHSI datasets, which allow for comparative evaluations of countries. The BI-β method and GHSI were used to compare countries in terms of global health security. Results: In 2021, the top three best-performing countries in terms of global health security were the United States (BI-β = 85.46), Australia (BI-β = 82.53), and the United Kingdom (BI-β = 82.29). For 2019, the United States (BI-β = 85.44) and Australia (BI-β = 81.69) had the same ranks as in 2021, but the United Kingdom (BI-β = 76.63) dropped to 9th place. There was a statistically significant positive weak monotonic relationship between BI-β and GHSI rankings. Conclusion: Since the GHSI scoring system is not consistent or questionable, the weighting process needs to be objectively reconsidered and the reasons for the weighting process need to be explained. The GHSI was conceptualized based on a narrow and technical framework. Therefore, it is recommended that the social and political determinants of public health be taken into account in the GHSI. On the other hand, the BI-β method can be easily used in solving other multicriteria decision-making problems, especially in public health areas such as global health security.