Submitted by: Submitted by jabboud
Views: 325
Words: 2381
Pages: 10
Category: Science and Technology
Date Submitted: 03/30/2011 02:10 PM
I. Introduction
Although there are obvious factors, like malnourishment and rampant disease, which account for the difference in the life expectancy between the poorest and wealthiest countries, discrepancies in life expectancies exist even among the highest income countries. There is a 14 year difference between Monaco’s life expectancy, the highest income country with the longest life expectancy, and Slovakia’s, the shortest average life expectancy. This life expectancy difference is especially pertinent for Americans because they have a shorter average life expectancy than people in most other high-income countries. The Japanese, for instance, live four years longer on average than Americans (CIA.GOV). Moreover, the trend seems to be increasing over time. 20 years ago, the US had the 11th highest average life expectancy, but today the US ranks 42 (Fox, 2007).
In my paper I explore the cause of this trend, in hopes that it can be remedied one day. I collected data on the 37 countries (35 countries and Hong Kong and Taiwan) classified as highest income. I read previous literature to determine which factors had been tested. I looked at articles discussing the increase in life expectancy of developed countries in recent decades, articles exclusively examining the impact of one factor in life expectancy, articles looking at a variety of factors, and articles that broke the society up into groups and discussed the factors behind their differing life expectancies. Although a great deal of research exists on life expectancies, I found contradictory conclusions among the various studies. I decided to test these variables that some researchers found significant and others found insignificant. Thus, I tested the impact of alcohol, smoking, being overweight, income inequality, healthcare quality, GDP, and the percent of GDP spent on healthcare in hopes of understanding the life expectancy discrepancies.
II. Previous Research
In the article, “The Exceptionally...