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Country-Level Socioeconomic Indicators Associated with Healthy Life Expectancy: Income, Urbanization, Schooling, and Internet Users: 2000–2012

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An Erratum to this article was published on 23 March 2016

Abstract

This study confirms the associations between healthy life expectancy (HLE) and country-level socioeconomic factors. Our analysis is based on HLE data of 178 countries obtained from the World Health Organization. Data on country-level socioeconomic indicators were obtained from the World Bank database and the United Nations. The associations between socioeconomic indicators and HLE are assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficients and multiple regression models. Our findings show significant positive correlations between HLE and the following country-level socioeconomic factors: national income level (INI: r = 0.775, p = 0.001), urban population (UP: r = 0.711, p = 0.001), mean years of schooling (MYS: r = 0.756, p = 0.001), and internet users (IU: r = 0.795, p = 0.001). Predictors of female and male HLE are used to build a model that predicts HLE by overall higher levels of INI, UP, MYS, and IU (R2 = 0.724, p < 0.001). Based on our results, country-level socioeconomic indicators seem to have an important effect on healthy life expectancy.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank three reviewers for their valuable comments, which helped to improve this manuscript significantly. This paper was sponsored by Wonkwang University in 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Social Welfare and Health Administration, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Republic of Korea

    Jong In Kim

  2. Institute for Longevity Sciences, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Republic of Korea

    Jong In Kim

  3. Management with International Business, Royal Holloway, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Gukbin Kim

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  1. Jong In Kim
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  2. Gukbin Kim
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Correspondence to Jong In Kim.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1295-4.

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Kim, J.I., Kim, G. Country-Level Socioeconomic Indicators Associated with Healthy Life Expectancy: Income, Urbanization, Schooling, and Internet Users: 2000–2012. Soc Indic Res 129, 391–402 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1107-2

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