The effects of health on economic development have been discussed in depth in the literature. Most of the findings have shown that the economic performance of a country can be enhanced by improving the health of the citizens. This paper investigates the causal link between health and economic development of high-income economies of selected OIC countries. Since these countries also have high expenditure on health in comparison with other OIC countries, the findings would give some indication of the importance of having high spending in health for the economic wellbeing of a country. The Toda-Yamamoto Granger non-causality model was used on data spanning from 1970 to 2015, and the results showed mixed causal relationships. Specifically, some countries like Bahrain and Kuwait have a health condition that boosts economic development, while Saudi Arabia experiences the opposite effect. However, health and economic development have bidirectional causality in the United Arab Emirates, while Brunei, Oman and Qatar do not show any causal direction between health and economic development. The findings give some evidence of the importance of health on economic prosperity without disregarding the fact that economic development is also important for good health.

Poor people generally have difficulty in accessing good healthcare services. This can consequently lead them to have a lower quality of life. This paper investigates whether zakat medical assistance helps improve the health of the asnaf (zakat recipients) and in turn upgrade their quality of life. The crosstab analysis of 60 respondents in Penang, Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan in 2014 shows that 93.4 percent of the asnaf reported that zakat medical assistance has increased their quality of life. Meanwhile, multiple regression analysis shows that among the predictors of health, income and education, health status is the significant predictor of quality of life of the zakat recipients. These findings would be useful for policy makers, especially the State Islamic Religious Councils, in order to focus on improving the level of quality of life of the asnaf and continue to increase the allocation of medical financial assistance from zakat to the eligible asnaf. At the micro level, the medical assistance rendered would help improve both health status and quality of life. As a result, zakat has great potential to be one of the economic tools to alleviate poverty among Muslims in Malaysia.