PhD Univ. Professor Emilia ŢIŢAN
Bucharest University of Economic Studies
PhD Student Andra RĂDULESCU
Bucharest University of Economic Studies
PhD Student Simona Liliana PARAMON
Bucharest University of Economic Studies
PhD Student Andreea Gabriela ZOTA
Bucharest University of Economic Studies
Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to build a composite indicator that reflects the state of health of a country. Thus, starting from twelve macroeconomic indicators calculated for each EU country for 2014 and using the Principal Components Analysis and Cluster Analysis, we were able to categorize countries by health status and group them into three distinct classes. The variables used to compose the composite indicator were: life expectancy, infant mortality rate, health care budget per capita, hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants, number of cigarettes smoked by one person in a year, mortality rate due to alcohol use, drug use, cancer, circulatory system diseases, suicide, road accidents and poverty rate. Even though these indicators indirectly measure health, they were nevertheless used due to the low availability of morbidity data for all EU countries.
Key Words: quality of life, health, composite indicator, principal component analysis, cluster analysis
