Punching above their weight: a network to understand broader determinants of increasing life expectancy

• DOI: 10.1186/s12939-018-0832-y
• Publication Date: 2018-08-13T09:29:02Z
• Authors: Fran Baum; Jennie Popay; Toni Delany-Crowe; Toby Freeman; Connie Musolino; Carlos Alvarez-Da...; Vinya Ariyaratne; Kedar Baral; Paulin Basinga; Mary Bassett; David M. Bishai; Mickey Chopra; Sharon Friel; Elsa Giugliani; Hideki Hashimoto; James Macinko; Martin McKee; Huong Thanh Nguyen; Nikki Schaay; Orielle Solar; Sundararaman Thia...; David Sanders
• Keywords: Health Services Research

Life expectancy initially improves rapidly with economic development but then tails off. Yet, at any level of development, some countries do better, and worse, than expected – they either punch above or below their weight. Why this is the case has been previously researched no full explanation complexity phenomenon available. In order to advance understanding, newly formed Punching Above Their Weight Research Network developed a model frame future research. It provides for consideration following influences within country: political institutional context history; social policies; scope democratic participation; extent health promoting policies affecting socio-economic inequities; gender roles power dynamics; civil society activity disease burdens. Further research using framework considerable potential effective equity.