Impact of regional differences in residential environment on healthy life expectancy in 1,300 Japanese municipalities

Abstract

Purpose / Context – We clarify how regional differences in residential environment impact healthy life expectancy. Methodology / Approach – We defined healthy life expectancy and considered how to measure and calculate it. We prepared the data for calculating healthy life expectancy from various Bureau of Statistics data, and applied the method to calculating healthy life expectancy for 1,750 municipalities in Japan in 2005 and 2010. Results – (1) The healthy life expectancy of men had increased by 0.38 years, and that of women decreased by 0.20 years on average in every municipality in Japan from 2005 to 2010. (2) It was confirmed that 1% of the decrease of proportion of housing constructed before 1970 in each municipality contributed to increasing healthy life expectancy by 4.84 years for men and 4.09 years for women. Key Findings / Implications – Regional difference in healthy life expectancy was seen strongly relevant to the lifestyle and revenue and found a certain degree of relevance with regional differ-ences in living environment. Originality – This work could quantify the impacts of not only the life habit known in the previous studies but also the residential environment on the extension of healthy life expectancy.