Disability-free life expectancy estimates for Brazil and Major Regions, 1998 and 2013.

Mirela Castro Santos Camargos,Wanderson Costa Bomfim,Marcos Roberto Gonzaga,José Vilton Costa

doi:10.1590/1413-81232018243.07612017

Abstract

Life expectancy at age 60 in Brazil has increased by around nine years in a little over 50 years. This general gain in life expectancy at national level has been heterogeneous across the country's major regions. Furthermore, little is known about how increases in life expectancy at age 60 across regions influence the number of years lived with some form of associated disability or the number of years lived free from disability. This study aimed to analyze increases in total life expectancy and its components [disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) and disability life expectancy (DLE)] at ages 60, 70, and 80 in Brazil and Major Regions in 1998 and 2013. The study used data on disability obtained from the 1998 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD - acronym in Portuguese) and 2013 National Health Survey (PNS- acronym in Portuguese) and used the Sullivan method to estimate DFLE by sex and age. The findings show that there was an increase in life expectancy and a concomitant increase in DFLE between 1998 and 2013. However, the gains in DFLE were not statistically significant in the North and Center-west regions. This means that, with the exception of the latter regions, in addition to living longer, the Brazils population aged 60 years can expect to live a greater number of healthy years.

Highlights

Living beings are governed by biological determinism: they are born, grow, mature, age, decline, and die
Little is known about how increases in life expectancy at age 60 across regions influence the number of years lived with some form of associated disability or the number of years lived free from disability
The findings show that there was an increase in life expectancy and a concomitant increase in disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) between 1998 and 2013

Summary

Introduction

Living beings are governed by biological determinism: they are born, grow, mature, age, decline, and die. Old age is a victory in the struggle against possible death in earlier stages of life. The number of victors is increasing yearly, turning this privilege into a fact of life[1]. In the 1940s in Brazil, a person who reached the age of 60 could expect to live on average another 13.2 years; 11.6 for men and 14.5 for women. In 2014, these figures had increased to 20 and 23.6, respectively. In the 1940s, assuming that mortality patterns at the time remained stable, for every 1,000 people who reached the age of 60, an average of 212 would reach the age of 80. After 74 years, assuming that current mortality patterns remain stable, this figure has increased to 579 people, meaning that 367 lives are saved[2]

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