Sociodemographic and Health Determinants of Inequalities in Life Expectancy in Least Developed Countries

Abstract

Background:  Life expectancy (LE) at birth, is a widely used indicator of the overall development of a country. Therefore, we attempted to build up the relationships between sociodemographic and health factors with LE in the least developed countries (LDCs).

Methods:  Data and necessary information of 48 LDCs were obtained from the United Nations agencies. LE was the response variable and determinant factors were sociodemographic and health related variables. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to extract the main factors.

Results:  All predictors were found significantly correlated with LE. Finally, crude death rate, infant mortality rate, physicians density, and gross national income per capita were identified as the significant predicators of LE.

Conclusions:  The findings suggest that international efforts should be aimed at increasing LE by decreasing mortality rates, and increasing physicians density and national income in the LDCs.

Keywords:  Life Expectancy • Least Developed Countries • Sociodemographic Determinants of Health Factors • Stepwise Multiple Regression • Global Disparities

Copyright © 2015  Mondal et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.