Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy among Canadian Adults with and without Hypertension.

Lidia Loukine,Bernard C K Choi,Joellyn Ellison,Chris Waters

doi:10.4061/2011/612968

Abstract

Hypertension can lead to cardiovascular diseases and other chronic conditions. While the impact of hypertension on premature death and life expectancy has been published, the impact on health-adjusted life expectancy has not, and constitutes the research objective of this study. Health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) is the number of expected years of life equivalent to years lived in full health. Data were obtained from the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System (mortality data 2004–2006) and the Canadian Community Health Survey (Health Utilities Index data 2000–2005) for people with and without hypertension. Life table analysis was applied to calculate life expectancy and health-adjusted life expectancy and their confidence intervals. Our results show that for Canadians 20 years of age, without hypertension, life expectancy is 65.4 years and 61.0 years, for females and males, respectively. HALE is 55.0 years and 52.8 years for the two sexes at age 20; and 24.7 years and 22.9 years at age 55. For Canadians with hypertension, HALE is only 48.9 years and 47.1 years for the two sexes at age 20; and 22.7 years and 20.2 years at age 55. Hypertension is associated with a significant loss in health-adjusted life expectancy compared to life expectancy.

Highlights

Hypertension or high blood pressure (HTN) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease
The first report on hypertension from the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System published by Public Health Agency of Canada shows that the agestandardized prevalence of hypertension among the adult population increased by about 7% between 1998 and 2006 and is projected to increase by another 25% by the end of 2012 [2]
There are few published studies which looked at the impact of hypertension on life expectancy [4, 5] and, to our knowledge, no previously published study has looked at high blood pressure and health expectancy

Summary

Background

Hypertension or high blood pressure (HTN) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. While LE is the average number of years a person is expected to live, HALE is life expectancy weighted or adjusted for the level of Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) It combines morbidity and mortality data in one single indicator of population health and indicates the average time that a person could expect to live in a healthy state. There are few published studies which looked at the impact of hypertension on life expectancy [4, 5] and, to our knowledge, no previously published study has looked at high blood pressure and health expectancy This is the first population-based Canadian study of life expectancy and healthadjusted life expectancy for people with and without diagnosed hypertension

Data Sources and Methods

Results

Discussion