Disability-free Life Expectancy and Life Expectancy in Good Self-rated Health in Chile: Gender Differences and Compression of Morbidity Between 2009 and 2016

Background: Chile has one of the highest life expectancies at 60 years in South America. This study was aimed to determine healthy life expectancies among Chilean older people, according to self-rated health and disability, and to explore gender differences.

Methods: Data from the National Survey of Health (2009 and 2016) were used to estimate prevalence of less than good self-rated health and disability among people aged 60 years and above. Health expectancies were calculated with the Sullivan method.

Results: In both years, women expected to live a lower proportion of their life expectancy in good self-rated health (54.5% [95% CI 50.0-58.8] for men and 37.6% [95% CI 34.3-40.8] for women in 2009; 46.1% [95% CI 42.6-49.7] for men and 38.5% [95% CI 35.6-41.4] for women in 2016). Life expectancy in less than good self-rated health increased for men (9.4 years [95% CI 8.4-10.3] in 2009; 11.5 years [95% CI 10.7-12.2]). Women expected to live a lower proportion of their remaining life without disabilities (65.3% [95% CI 61.2-69.4] for men and 44.9% [95% CI 41.9-47.9] for women in 2009; 71.9% [95% CI 68.7-75.0] for men and 61.1% [95% CI 58.5-63.8] for women in 2016). In 2016, disability-free life expectancy increased among women, but they still had a higher life expectancy with mild disability (2.8 years [95% CI 2.3-3.4] for men and 6.0 years [95% CI 5.4-6.7] for women).

Conclusions: Women expected to spend more years in less than good self-rated health and disabled. There was an expansion of life expectancy in less than good SRH among men and a compression of disability in both sexes. The high proportion of years expected to be lived in less than good self-rated health and gender differences in disability-free life expectancy of older adults should be addressed by public health policies in Chile.