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Life Expectancy in Africa: Improving Public Health Policy provides readers with a comprehensive analysis of life expectancy in Africa and proposes avenues for improving public health policy on the African continent. The book studies the period between 1960 and 2015. To a large extent, the author offers an understanding of the changes of life expectancy at birth across regions and time in Africa to inform public policy decisions. The author relied on primary source data over the 1960-2015 period from The World Bank, Barro and Lee, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Adu Frimpong adopted exploratory spatial data analysis, which included spatio-temporal and spatial regression procedures. Adu Frimpong argues that the spatial spillover of major armed conflicts (or wars) does not only affect a country's life expectancy at birth, but it also affects the life expectancy at birth of other neighboring countries. Above all, this book contends that the African continent suffers substantial losses in overall life expectancy of its citizenry from cradle to the grave. The continent experiences major armed conflicts - often in the form of civil wars - unabated to the detriment of the citizens of all its nations.
List of contents
Foreword by Onyumbe Lukongo
Preface
Chapter 1: The Genesis, The Past and The Current Situation of Life Expectancy in Africa
Chapter 2: Life Expectancy, Health, Geo-Patial Analytics and War/Conflict Theories
Chapter 3: Methodology and Models Specification of Spatio-Temporal and Spatial Regression Analyses
Chapter 4: Spatio- Temporal Analysis of Life Expectancy and Conflict-cum-War in Africa
Chapter 5: Epilogue: Conclusion, Policy Recommendations and Implications
Appendix I: Spatio-Temporal Analysis Data Output
Appendix II: Some Selected Development Indicators and Data from World Bank, IMF, and Barrow & Lee, from 1960 to 2015
About the author
By Augustine Adu Frimpong - Foreword by Onyumbe B. Lukongo
Summary
This book examines life expectancy in Africa in the context of improving public health policy, making use of exploratory spatial data analysis, including spatio-temporal and spatial regression procedures. Adu Frimpong underscores several negative factors that work against progress in African life expectancy, including wide-spread armed conflicts.
Additional text
In its five well-researched chapters — coupled with copious references as well as a very useful subject index, an expert’s foreword, and a preface — this book deals with several aspects of life expectancy in Africa and, indeed, ways to improve public health policy on the continent. It is a timely publication that will certainly stand the test of time and, in the end, benefit a wide spectrum of researchers, students and the general reader. I recommend the book without any reservation.
