Inequality of healthy life expectancy for the Chinese elderly and its trend

• Main Author: Kaishan Jiao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2019-11-01
• Series: The Journal of Chinese Sociology
• Subjects: Chinese Elderly; Life expectancy; Healthy life expectancy; Inequality
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40711-019-0111-3

Abstract In this study, we use long-term follow-up survey data to explore the inequality of the healthy life expectancy among the elderly and the trends of such expectancy among different birth cohorts and at different ages. The results show that older people with higher socioeconomic status do not have a significant advantage in healthy life expectancy. Its advantage in life expectancy is mainly due to the relatively low mortality rate under conditions of disability, i.e., the relatively long life expectancy with disability. This also shows that the elderly with higher socioeconomic status is at the stage of disability expansion. In addition, the study examines the age effect and cohort effect of health inequality and points out that health inequalities among different socioeconomic status groups are likely to increase in the future.