Years of Good Life: An illustration of a new well-being indicator using data for Thailand

Abstract

While Thailand has achieved high levels of economic growth in recent decades, poverty at the local level has been increasing. Indicators of human development at the national level often mask the differences in well-being across communities. When responding to the need for sustainable development research, the heterogeneity of a population should be emphasised to ensure that no one is left behind. The Years of Good Life (YoGL) is a well-being indicator that demonstrates the similarities and differences between subpopulations in a given sociocultural context over time. The data used in this analysis were collected from Chiang Rai and Kalasin, which are provinces located in regions of Thailand with high poverty rates. Our main results indicate that the remaining years of good life (free from physical and cognitive limitations, out of poverty and satisfied with life) at age 20 among the sample population were 26 years for women and 28 years for men. The results varied depending on the indicators applied in each dimension of YoGL. Our analysis of the YoGL constituents indicated that cognitive functioning was the dimension that decreased the years of good life the most in the main specification. This study demonstrates the applicability of the YoGL methodology in investigating the wellbeing of subpopulations.

The Well-Being of Older Adults in the Philippines: Application of the Years of Good Life

“…The SPSMQ test result was chosen for this reason and because it covered more aspects of cognition rather than focusing on a single numeracy or memory task. The selection process for both health dimensions was similar to other studies concerning YoGL (Buathong et al, 2021;Lutz et al, 2021). For life satisfaction, the combined distribution of "very satisfied" and "somewhat satisfied" was selected because of its similar operationalization in the application of YoGL in other societies (Buathong et al, 2021;Lutz et al, 2021).…”

“…Although the concepts are welldefined, various measures can be applied. Therefore, testing which specific measure is most fit was suitable (Buathong et al, 2021). Further details on YoGL are found in Lutz et al (2021).…”

“…Performing physical tests is optimal for gathering data about limitations (Spitzer & Weber, 2019), but these are time-consuming. In this regard, self-reported measures have been found to be appropriate (Buathong et al, 2021). The first measure tested was from the Nagi function measures (Nagi, 1965).…”

“…Life satisfaction and mortality information was integrated with the ecological footprints for this index. The issue with utilizing such an approach is that it does not reflect the current condition of society but shows the probable impacts on future well-being (Buathong et al, 2021).…”

Sustainable human wellbeing: What can demography contribute?

“…The application of these criteria to the definition of the tailor-made indicator Years of Good Life (YoGL) and its specific quantification will not be discussed here, but will be shown in three of the following papers (Reiter and Spitzer 2021;Striessnig et al 2021;Buathong et al 2021). A comprehensive description of this concept has been published recently in PNAS (Lutz et al 2021b).…”