Regression and Other Stories: Health Expenditure

Health Expenditure - Discovery through graphs of data and models. See Chapter 2 in Regression and Other Stories.

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Load packages

library("ggplot2")
library("bayesplot")
theme_set(bayesplot::theme_default(base_family = "sans"))
library("rprojroot")
root<-has_file(".ROS-Examples-root")$make_fix_file()

Load data

health <- read.table(root("HealthExpenditure/data","healthdata.txt"), header=TRUE)
head(health)

    country spending lifespan
1 Australia     3357     81.4
2   Austria     3763     80.1
3   Belgium     3595     79.8
4    Canada     3895     80.7
5     Czech     1626     77.0
6   Denmark     3512     78.4

# Use red for USA and Mexico
color <- ifelse(health$country %in% c("USA","Mexico"), "red","black")

Scatterplot

(see ggplot versions at the end)

All countries:

par(mgp=c(1.7,.5,0), tck=-.01, mar=c(3,3,.1,.1))
plot(health$spending, health$lifespan, xlim=c(0,1.05*max(health$spending)), xaxs="i",
      type="n", xlab="Health care spending (PPP US$)",
      ylab="Life expectancy (years)")
text(health$spending, health$lifespan, health$country, col=color)

Plot scatterplot, excluding some countries for improved clarity

removec <- health$country %in% c("Netherlands", "Belgium", "Germany",
  "Ireland", "Iceland", "Greece", "Italy", "Sweden", "UK")

par(mgp=c(2.5,.7,0), tck=-.01, mar=c(4,4,.1,.1))
plot(health$spending[!removec], health$lifespan[!removec], xlim=c(0,1.05*max(health$spending)),
      xaxs="i",  type="n", xlab="Health care spending (PPP US$)",
      ylab="Life expectancy (years)", cex.axis=1.3, cex.lab=1.3, las=1, xaxt="n", bty="l")
axis(1, seq(0,8000,2000), cex.axis=1.3, cex.lab=1.3)
text(health$spending[!removec], health$lifespan[!removec], health$country[!removec],
      col=color[!removec], cex=1.3)
for (x in seq(2000,6000,2000)) abline(v=x, col="gray", lwd=.5)
for (y in seq(74,82,2)) abline(y,0,col="gray", lwd=.5)

par(mgp=c(1.7,.5, 0), tck=-.01, mar=c(3,3,.1,.1))
plot(health$spending[!removec], health$lifespan[!removec], xlim=c(0,1.05*max(health$spending)),
      xaxs="i",  type="n", xlab="Health care spending (PPP US$)",
      ylab="Life expectancy (years)", bty="l", xaxt="n")
axis(1, seq(0,6000,2000))
text(health$spending[!removec], health$lifespan[!removec], health$country[!removec], cex=.9)

ggplot versions

All countries:

# this could be further modified to include color in the dataframe
ggplot(data=health, aes(x=spending, y=lifespan, label=country)) +
  geom_text(color=color) +
  labs(x="Health care spending (PPP US$)",
       y="Life expectancy (years)")

Selected countries:

# this could be further modified to include color in the dataframe
ggplot(data=subset(health, !removec),                   
       aes(x=spending, y=lifespan, label=country)) +
  geom_text(color=color[!removec]) +
  labs(x="Health care spending (PPP US$)",
       y="Life expectancy (years)")