21st Annual Student Research Conference
Health Care Spending and Life Expectancy Across Countries
Michael R. Connelly* and Michael D. Cook
Dr. Jane Sung, Faculty Mentor
Using data from the UN and the WHO, we investigate the connection between national health care spending and average life expectancy at birth. Considering the importance of health care costs as a national issue, it is important to determine whether additional spending lengthens life. We decided to compare spending and life expectancy across a wide range of countries to determine whether those that spend more have greater life expectancies. We constructed a linear regression model with life expectancy as the dependent variable and physicians per capita and health care expenditures per capita as independent variables. The model showed that there is a significant positive relationship between both physicians per-capita and spending per-capita and life expectancy, but is more pronounced at lower levels of physicians and spending.
Keywords: health, care, costs, international, economics, regression, model, life expectancy
Topic(s):Economics
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 46-1
Location: VH 1232
Time: 2:45