Introduction
As a daughter, granddaughter, and future mother, it is highly important to me that people are able to live long, healthy lives and see the ones they love grow older; I believe that all parents should be able to watch their children grow up and, eventually, become parents of their own. As a result, I chose to look into Sustainability Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being, focused on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. For my story, I used the life expectancy by gender data on Singapore provided by SAP as well as GDP data from the World Bank.
Visualizations and Key Insights
Using SAP Analytics Cloud, I displayed life expectancies in Singapore for males and females, showcased in figure 1, and saw an increasing trend in life expectancy for each from 2004 to 2014. Over the 10-year period, the male life expectancy increased by four years, while the female life expectancy increased by three.
Figure 2: Singapore GDP in Billions (USD)
I then looked into Singapore’s GDP over the same time frame using data from the World Bank, seeing if the economic indicator had also increased. As represented in figure 2, I saw GDP grew year-after-year, almost tripling in the 10-year timespan.
Figure 3: Singapore Male Life Expectancy vs. GDP in Billions (USD)
Figure 4: Singapore Female Life Expectancy in Years vs. GDP in Billions (USD)
I then created scatterplots analyzing the life expectancy of each gender against GDP, shown in figures 3 and 4. Each graphic depicts an increasing trend, indicating that an increase in GDP correlates with an increase in life expectancy, which is what I had anticipated. This is supported by Australia’s Department of Health, which states that economic well-being can impact life expectancy (“Tier 1,” 2012). Knowing this, I then calculated the slope of the best-fit line for each scatterplot, indicating that for every increase in GDP of $10 billion, the Singapore male life expectancy increases by 0.151 years and female by 0.126 years, respectively.
Implementation
Although this UN Sustainability goal is focused on understanding why people die and addressing the causes, it appears that general efforts – ones that do not specifically target a single disease or infection – can still be made that will positively impact people’s well-being, by increasing life expectancy. As GDP is tied to life expectancy, it is my recommendation that SAP invests in countries through monetary donations and technological implementations. Investment is a factor of GDP, which is why SAP should promote innovation by monetarily supporting companies and organizations focused on researching and developing treatments for noncommunicable and infectious diseases. SAP should further take its latest health technologies, like CancerLinQ, and work with companies and hospitals to make the services more readily available to patients throughout the world. These investments may help countries find the specific solutions needed to improve their citizens' health and would leave countries wealthier than before. Although there is no single solution for improving the well-being of all, investing in countries will improve economic well-being around the world and ultimately lead to an increased life expectancy for all.
Reference
Tier 1 life expectancy and wellbeing 1.19 life expectancy at birth. (2012, Nov 15). Australian Government Department of Health. Retrieved from http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/oatsih-hpf-2012-toc~tier1~life...
As a daughter, granddaughter, and future mother, it is highly important to me that people are able to live long, healthy lives and see the ones they love grow older; I believe that all parents should be able to watch their children grow up and, eventually, become parents of their own. As a result, I chose to look into Sustainability Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being, focused on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. For my story, I used the life expectancy by gender data on Singapore provided by SAP as well as GDP data from the World Bank.
Visualizations and Key Insights
Figure 1: Singapore Life Expectancy in Years by Gender
Using SAP Analytics Cloud, I displayed life expectancies in Singapore for males and females, showcased in figure 1, and saw an increasing trend in life expectancy for each from 2004 to 2014. Over the 10-year period, the male life expectancy increased by four years, while the female life expectancy increased by three.
Figure 2: Singapore GDP in Billions (USD) I then looked into Singapore’s GDP over the same time frame using data from the World Bank, seeing if the economic indicator had also increased. As represented in figure 2, I saw GDP grew year-after-year, almost tripling in the 10-year timespan.
Figure 3: Singapore Male Life Expectancy vs. GDP in Billions (USD)
Figure 4: Singapore Female Life Expectancy in Years vs. GDP in Billions (USD)
I then created scatterplots analyzing the life expectancy of each gender against GDP, shown in figures 3 and 4. Each graphic depicts an increasing trend, indicating that an increase in GDP correlates with an increase in life expectancy, which is what I had anticipated. This is supported by Australia’s Department of Health, which states that economic well-being can impact life expectancy (“Tier 1,” 2012). Knowing this, I then calculated the slope of the best-fit line for each scatterplot, indicating that for every increase in GDP of $10 billion, the Singapore male life expectancy increases by 0.151 years and female by 0.126 years, respectively.
Implementation
Although this UN Sustainability goal is focused on understanding why people die and addressing the causes, it appears that general efforts – ones that do not specifically target a single disease or infection – can still be made that will positively impact people’s well-being, by increasing life expectancy. As GDP is tied to life expectancy, it is my recommendation that SAP invests in countries through monetary donations and technological implementations. Investment is a factor of GDP, which is why SAP should promote innovation by monetarily supporting companies and organizations focused on researching and developing treatments for noncommunicable and infectious diseases. SAP should further take its latest health technologies, like CancerLinQ, and work with companies and hospitals to make the services more readily available to patients throughout the world. These investments may help countries find the specific solutions needed to improve their citizens' health and would leave countries wealthier than before. Although there is no single solution for improving the well-being of all, investing in countries will improve economic well-being around the world and ultimately lead to an increased life expectancy for all.
Reference
Tier 1 life expectancy and wellbeing 1.19 life expectancy at birth. (2012, Nov 15). Australian Government Department of Health. Retrieved from http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/oatsih-hpf-2012-toc~tier1~life...
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