Life Expectancy In The DR?

daydream

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Sep 19, 2004
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I was reading this article today about a Dominican lady celebrating her 105th birthday:

http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo...d=0C641B08B7374048B70ED39A448256BF&Seccion=63 (hope this link's OK ;))

It states that her father lived till the age of 118 and her mother 98!

After reading I was curious as to the life expectancy of males/females in the DR and so I did a little Googling to come up with figures around 71/75 respectively.

Now do you think that this woman and her mother and father are just exceptions from the average or is it a case of the stats being somewhat unreliable? Many of the population stats on the DR are understated due to the number of births which go unregistered, and I was wondering whether it's a similar case with the filing of deaths?

How reliable do you think the life expectancy stats are?

To be able to take care of yourself and even apply your own make up at 105.....now that's impressive! :classic: Happy Birthday Petronila!

Daydream
 

Mirador

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daydream said:
I was reading this article today about a Dominican lady celebrating her 105th birthday:

http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo...d=0C641B08B7374048B70ED39A448256BF&Seccion=63 (hope this link's OK ;))

It states that her father lived till the age of 118 and her mother 98!

After reading I was curious as to the life expectancy of males/females in the DR and so I did a little Googling to come up with figures around 71/75 respectively.

Now do you think that this woman and her mother and father are just exceptions from the average or is it a case of the stats being somewhat unreliable? Many of the population stats on the DR are understated due to the number of births which go unregistered, and I was wondering whether it's a similar case with the filing of deaths?

How reliable do you think the life expectancy stats are?

To be able to take care of yourself and even apply your own make up at 105.....now that's impressive! :classic: Happy Birthday Petronila!

Daydream

Do?a Petronila's longevity has nothing to do with stats ('average life expectancy'). Her condition is genetically determined (like crooked teeth...), and as such runs in the family, like her own parents' longevity attests. So it will be useless to ask her what has she being doing (or not doing) to herself to have attained such advanced age in relative good health...

-
 

daydream

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Mirador said:
Do?a Petronila's longevity has nothing to do with stats ('average life expectancy'). Her condition is genetically determined (like crooked teeth...), and as such runs in the family, like her own parents' longevity attests. So it will be useless to ask her what has she being doing (or not doing) to herself to have attained such advanced age in relative good health...

-

Hi Mirador

Thanks for clearing up Do?a Petronila's case (my not so perfect Spanish is to blame for perhaps missing all details mentioned in the article), however I am still interested to know what people's views are on life expectancy figures for the DR

Daydream
 

bob saunders

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My wifes aunts are all still alive, 3 of them in their mid 80s. I think that if they have the genetic disposition and live in an area not too hot and filled with diseases they have the same if not better chance that in more developed countries. Certainly the food they have eaten most of their lives has been healthy that what the majority of us north american eat.
 

qgrande

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Jul 27, 2005
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I think 71/75 years is pretty high for a developing country (or a lower middle income country for NALs ;) ). Life expectancy does not only reflect how old people get until they die of natural causes, but also infant mortality, traffic and other accidents, crime, diseases, etc.
 

Mirador

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qgrande said:
I think 71/75 years is pretty high for a developing country (or a lower middle income country for NALs ;) ). Life expectancy does not only reflect how old people get until they die of natural causes, but also infant mortality, traffic and other accidents, crime, diseases, etc.

Life expectancy at birth... (source: http://www.indexmundi.com/)

USA
total population: 77.71 years
male: 74.89 years
female: 80.67 years (2005 est.)

Cuba
total population: 77.23 years
male: 74.94 years
female: 79.65 years (2005 est.)


Dominican Republic
total population: 67.26 years
male: 65.52 years
female: 69.1 years (2005 est.)
 

qgrande

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Mirador said:
Life expectancy at birth... (source: http://www.indexmundi.com/)

USA
total population: 77.71 years
male: 74.89 years
female: 80.67 years (2005 est.)

Cuba
total population: 77.23 years
male: 74.94 years
female: 79.65 years (2005 est.)


Dominican Republic
total population: 67.26 years
male: 65.52 years
female: 69.1 years (2005 est.)

And Haiti
total population: 52.92 years
male: 51.58 years
female: 54.31 years

Botswana
total population: 33.87 years
male: 33.89 years
female: 33.84 years (2005 est.)

Sweden
total population: 80.4 years
male: 78.19 years
female: 82.74 years (2005 est.)
 

rellosk

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Mar 18, 2002
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daydream said:
How reliable do you think the life expectancy stats are?
That may depend on the source of the population study. If the study is for the general population, then the accuracy may be in question, since as you stated many Dominicans, especially those living in the campos, were never registered at birth, and there actual ages may be in question.

If the study is for an insured population or for those receiving pensions, the statistics are probably more accurate.
 

daydream

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rellosk said:
That may depend on the source of the population study. If the study is for the general population, then the accuracy may be in question, since as you stated many Dominicans, especially those living in the campos, were never registered at birth, and there actual ages may be in question.

If the study is for an insured population or for those receiving pensions, the statistics are probably more accurate.

Agreed. I appreciate that these numbers are open to debate - the debate lying with the population data. Looking back at one of the sites in my Google search, this one provides further detail about how their numbers are generated ( http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/dr.html ), and gives the definition of 'life expectancy at birth' as:

This entry contains the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year, if mortality at each age remains constant in the future. The entry includes total population as well as the male and female components. Life expectancy at birth is also a measure of overall quality of life in a country and summarizes the mortality at all ages. It can also be thought of as indicating the potential return on investment in human capital and is necessary for the calculation of various actuarial measures.


The life expectancy figures quoted on this particular site were M/F 70/73 and the definition quoted above would imply to me that the population data is based on those births registered.

The figures Mirador quoted are quite a bit lower - 65/69....which would seem more realistic, perhaps - I agree with qgrande that figures in the 70's seem a bit high for a developing country?

(BTW - the site quoting 71/75 doesn't appear to provide much detail as to how their numbers were calculated, hence I chose another site in my example above)
 

Rick Snyder

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Nov 19, 2003
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It has been my experience living here that the DR has poorly kept records if any at all. Of course this is changing as more organizations and the government continue to implement the computer. As it presently stands any statistics concerning birth, death, sickness, education, accidents and a host of other subjects cannot be relied upon and this is compounded when an entity outside the DR does the reporting. IMHO.

Rick