Although in shortage, nursing workforce is still a significant contributor to life expectancy at birth

Wenpeng You, Frank Donnelly

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Objectives: Previous studies have not fully reported the strength and independency of the correlation of nursing workforce to life expectancy. This study advances that nursing workforce is a major independent contributor to life expectancy at birth (LEB) globally and regionally. Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted at population level. Sample: Ecological data were extracted from the United Nations agencies for 215 populations. Each population is considered a research subject. Measurements: The correlation between nursing workforce and LEB was analyzed with scatter plots, bivariate correlation, partial correlation, and multiple linear regression analyses, Analysis of Variance post hoc and independent T-test. Economic affluence, urban lifestyle and obesity were included as the potential confounders in this study. Intervention: Not applicable. Results: Nursing workforce correlated to LEB and this relationship remained regardless of the competition of economic affluence, urbanization, and obesity. Second to economic affluence, nursing workforce showed the greatest influence on LEB. In total, 64.50% of LEB was explained in this study. Nursing workforce was a determinant of regional variations of LEB. Conclusions: Nursing workforce may be a significant contributor to LEB globally and regionally. This contribution was independent of the potential confounding effects of economic affluence, urbanization, and obesity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)229-242
Number of pages14
JournalPublic Health Nursing
Volume40
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2023

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2022 The Authors. Public Health Nursing published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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