Data Analysis Project
andyinla
HealthSpr191.pptx
Health
Health
Infant Mortality
Measured as infant deaths prior to first year after birth per 1,000 live births.
Often used to evaluate various health care systems and technologies.
Perceived by many to be highly responsive to improvements and failures in health care.
Differences exist across states, countries, race, and time?
Data Considerations when comparing countries:
Some countries count early births as “miscarriages” and do not include loss in infant mortality statistics, lowering their infant mortality rate.
Countries with a higher ratio of pre-term births, like the U.S., register higher infant mortality.
Abortion
Data: Guttmacher Foundation
Opinions: Gallup
Measuring
Abortion Rate per 1000 Women, percent of pregnancies ending in abortion, demographic characteristics, etc..
Influencing Factors: income, race, age, etc..
Health
Life Expectancy
Often used to compare various health care systems and technologies.
U.S has lower life expectancy than many European nations.
U.S. has higher deaths unrelated to the health care system such as homicides, suicides, and accidents, skewing the average lower.
Critics point out these factors are not completely unrelated to the health care system.
U.S. Hispanics live longer (especially immigrants from Mexico)
Ironically, Hispanics have characteristics correlated with lower life expectancy (i.e. higher poverty, less education, and health insurance).
Explained by “return migration” and lower smoking rates.
Blacks have lower life expectancy than Whites (≈4 years difference)
Gap increased in 1980s due to higher homicide rates in the inner cities.
After age 75 the gap diminishes to <1 year.
Black youth have twice the probability of death compared to whites.
Health
Life Expectancy
Very Elderly data may be unreliable
<21 and >70 years of age tend to exaggerate their age causing an upward bias.
Measuring Longevity: Mean vs. Median statistics.
Longevity is skewed left due to high infant mortality rates.
Median may be a better statistic when measuring the “typical” life span.
Leading Causes of Death
Health
Cancer
Type of cancer matters for rates
Lung cancer has highest mortality and contributes to the increasing death rates seen post 1950s.
When lung cancer is excluded, death rate falls for cancer.
“War on cancer” may be difficult to track if lung cancer is included since it is primarily caused by smoking rather than insufficient health care advancements.
Survival Rates
Skewed upward: the half that survive the median time-frame can expect to live many years longer than the median would suggest.
Incidence rate
Changes with both actual cases and rates of detection.
1974 breast examination campaign led to higher incidence as women rushed out to get checked.
1982-1992 the PSA blood count test for prostate cancer caused the incidence of prostate cancer in men to rise as more got tested.
Health
Cost/Benefit Analysis:
Valuing human life
Life-income-lost earnings approach
Problem: certain categories of people are valued differently (i.e. children and high income earners are valued higher)
Willingness to pay approach
Greater salary for higher risk job.
Problem: large range from $300K-$8 million.
Cost effectiveness approach
No value placed on life.
Analyzes the cost per life saved of a particular policy.
Traffic Fatalities
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)
Overall rates have declined but important trends are masked.
#1 cause of death among teenagers (ages 16-19).
3x the fatal crash rate of adults.
Alcohol is present in about one-third of all traffic fatalities.
Motorcycle deaths are about 15% of vehicular fatalities but constitute 28x the death rate per mile driven in automobiles.
Increased motorcycle deaths due to greater middle-aged/inexperienced riders.
>90% of all motorcycle fatalities are males.
