Authors: Tony Bardo & Scott Lynch
Published in: The Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences (2021) • Link to Paper
This project examines the differences between cognitively intact life expectancy and happy life expectancy in the United States, showing that at age 65, happy life expectancy is ~25% longer and increasing to ~100% by age 85.
- Compare how long older adults live cognitively intact vs happily.
- Measure the gap and how it changes with age.
- Highlight implications for public health, elder care, and policy-making.
- Source: Health and Retirement Study (1998-2014)
- Privacy: Fully public and de-identified
- Link to Data: https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/about
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Data Cleaning & Prep
- Loaded age-stratified life tables
- Mapped cognitive and happiness categories
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Life-Expectancy Calculations
- Calculated separate life expectancies using survival and health status data
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Comparative Analysis
- Computed the absolute and relative difference in expectancy across age cohorts
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Visualization
- Plotted expectancy curves (age 65 → 90) with both cognitive and happiness lines
- At age 65: Happy expectancy ≈ 25% longer than cognitively intact expectancy
- By age 85: absolute gap remains significant (~X years), underscoring policy concern
- Visualized in
figures/expectancy_gap.pngfor age-specific comparison
. ├── data/ │ └── clean_life_table.csv ├── analysis/ │ ├── calc_expectancy.R │ └── compare_expectancy.R ├── figures/ │ └── expectancy_gap.png └── README.md
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- Demonstrates end-to-end data pipeline: cleaning, analysis, and visualization
- Insights support evidence-based policy decisions in health and aging
- Clear example of translating public data into actionable findings
- R (data wrangling, life-table algorithms, plotting)
- ggplot2 for visuals
- [Tableau] (optional interactive dashboard)