From social impact subcategories to human health: an application of multivariate analysis on S-LCA

This research aims to propose the SMiLe method (Social Metric for Life Cycle), developed to identify potential impact pathways from correlations between the subcategories and their effects on the human health endpoint. We used multivariate data analysis in the S-LCA context to obtain the impact pathways and obtain the characterization model. The proposed method was developed in three stages: (I) area of protection (AoP) definition; (II) estimation technique selection; (III) development of the cause-effect chain and characterization model. For stage I, AoP was well-being and the endpoint category, human health, indicated by the life expectancy at birth (LEX). As estimation techniques, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM), and partial least squares SEM (PLS-SEM) were respectively used in the exploratory step (analysis of the relationships between indicators representing the subcategories), confirmatory stage (validation of impact pathways), and predictive step (obtaining the characterization model). The three estimation techniques used socioeconomic indicators from 189 countries to represent the subcategories. As a result of the data collection, it was possible to develop a database of 21 indicators, representing 15 subcategories related to four stakeholders, including data from various international sources, such as the World Bank and the International Labour Organization. The EFA and CB-SEM results showed that it was possible to identify and confirm that the subcategories used in this study were organized in two factors (social dimensions) related to “Economy and competitiveness” and “Access to water, sanitation and conflict prevention”. Finally, through the PLS-SEM, there was a strong correlation between these social dimensions and the life expectancy at birth. Using social indicators related to subcategories and multivariate techniques, such as EFA and SEM, it was possible to identify and estimate two impact pathways, Economy and competitiveness and Access to water, sanitation and conflict prevention related to the endpoint human health. Moreover, the results of the PLS-SEM presented in this study can be used as a characterization model, allowing to obtain the effects of each impact pathway on the life expectancy at birth. Future advances include the possibility of identifying new impact pathways from the subcategories, with the use of exploratory techniques and methodological advances in already identified pathways.