Effects on inequality in life expectancy from a social ecology perspective

• Published in: BMC public health 2018-02, Vol.18 (1), p.243-243, Article 243
• Main Authors: Kim, Jong In, Kim, Gukbin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Aged; Analysis; Correlation coefficients; Deprivation; Ecological effects; Ecological monitoring; Ecology; Education; Equality; Female; Females; Gini coefficient; Global Health - statistics & numerical data; Health aspects; Health care; Health disparities; Health education; Health Status Disparities; Humans; Hypotheses; Income; Income distribution; Income inequality; Indicators; Inequality in life expectancy; Labor; Labor economics; Labor productivity; Labour productivity; Life Expectancy; Life span; Male; Males; Multiple regression models; Native peoples; Old age pension recipients; Pensions - statistics & numerical data; Population; Productivity; Public health; Public policy; Regression analysis; Retirement planning; Secondary education; Social Determinants of Health; Social ecology; Social Environment; Social security; Socio-ecological perspective; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomics; Studies; Womens health
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-018-5134-1

Inequality in life expectancy (ILE) is defined as inequality in the distribution of expected span of life-based on data from survival tables estimated using the Atkinson inequality index. ILE can be influenced by socio-ecological indicators including the Gini coefficient, secondary education, output per worker, and old age pension. This study examined the effects on ILE from a social ecology perspective. This analysis is based on ILE data from 108 countries obtained from the United Nations Development Programme. Data on socio-ecological indicators were obtained from the United Nations database. The associations between socio-ecological indicators and ILE were assessed using correlation coefficients and multiple regression models. Significant correlations were evident between ILE and the following indicators from a socio-ecological perspective: Gini coefficient (GC: r = 0.335, p = 0.001) as an indicator of income inequality, female population with at least some secondary education (FSE: r = - 0.757, p = 0.001), male population with at least some secondary education (MSE: r = - 0.741, p = 0.001), output per worker as a measure of labor productivity (OPW: r = - 0.714, p = 0.001), and number of old age pension recipients (OPR: r = - 0.641, p = 0.001). In multivariate regression, the ILE predictors were higher GC and lower levels of FSE, MSE, OPW, and OPR (R  = 0.648, p