Abstract
Health improvement is an important social development goal for every country. By using a geographical weighted regression (GWR) model on the 5th and 6th censuses data, this paper analyzes the spatially varied influencing factors of the change in life expectancy of residents in Chinses cities. The results indicate that: (1) The initial level of life expectancy may have a negative correlation with its increase, indicating that life expectancy in different areas may eventually converge to a higher level; moreover, the degree of convergence of life expectancy in cities with different economic development levels is variant. (2) Results of geographically weighted regression model demonstrate significant spatial heterogeneity in the effects of the level of economic development, medical conditions, demographic structure, and natural environment on health improvement. Natural conditions, such as topography, dictate the change in life expectancy in most cities in the middle eastern region of China. Change of educational level is the leading factor in the vast western region while the change in birth rate is the most critical in Xinjiang. Thus, local-based strategies are critical for solving health problems, especially with a focus on promoting health conditions in middle-income and low-income areas.
Highlights
Life expectancy, one of the most important indices in evaluating human health and aging, could be regarded as a comprehensive index reflecting levels of development in regional economy, education and healthcare [1]
In order to further investigate and analyze the association between economic development and change in life expectancy in China, the 327 cities are divided into three categories—109 low-income cities, 105 middleincome cities, and 113 high-income cities—using the quantile method in ArcGIS 10.6, based on per capita GDP of cities in 2000
Model employed in the empirical section helps clarify the spatial heterogeneity of the effects of influencing factors. Natural conditions such as topography dictate the change in life expectancy in most cities in the middle eastern region of China
Summary
One of the most important indices in evaluating human health and aging, could be regarded as a comprehensive index reflecting levels of development in regional economy, education and healthcare [1]. In the past half century, the world’s average life expectancy has increased from 52.62 years in 1960 to 69.64 in 2010; the global health level has generally improved, but the growth rate has been slowing down. Life expectancy in most developing countries began to increase rapidly after World War II because of the sharp decline in mortality [4], especially in China and India, the most two populous developing countries, health improvement of which contributes greatly to the improvement of global life expectancy [5]. The improvement of global life expectancy mainly depends primarily on developing countries
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