DISEASE, WAR, HUNGER, AND DEPRIVATION: A CROSS-NATIONAL INVESTIGATION OF THE DETERMINANTS OF LIFE EXPECTANCY IN LESS-DEVELOPED AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN NATIONS

Researchers note a recent trend of increasing inequality in cross-national life expectancy rates, largely due to conditions in the poorest of nations. Threats to life expectancy in less-developed nations include poverty, warfare, intense hunger, and disease, particularly AIDS/HIV. This article utilizes structural equation models for a sample of less-developed nations and a subsample of Sub-Saharan African nations to test interrelationships among predictors. Findings indicate modernization to be the most robust predictor of life expectancy across less-developed nations and HIV to be the strongest determinant of life expectancy in Sub-Saharan African nations. Somewhat surprisingly, warfare and hunger do not have direct impacts on life expectancy among less-developed nations; however, important linkages among warfare, hunger, and disease are evidenced in the Sub-Saharan African sample, along with a notable positive influence of modernization on HIV rates. The findings demonstrate the significance of HIV on cross-national life expectancy scores and illuminate unique dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa.