| Title: |
Gender and educational inequalities in disability-free life expectancy among older adults living in Italian regions |
| Authors: |
Moretti, Margherita; Strozza, Cosmo |
| Contributors: |
Helsinki Institute for Demography and Population Health |
| Publisher Information: |
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research |
| Publication Year: |
2023 |
| Collection: |
Helsingfors Universitet: HELDA – Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto |
| Subject Terms: |
5200 Other social sciences |
| Description: |
BACKGROUND Italy’s life expectancy at age 65 is one of the highest in Europe, but its disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) is not so high. To understand this diverging pattern of longevity and health it is essential to consider indicators accounting for both mortality and morbidity, and to analyse the gender, social, and geographical inequities characterising them. OBJECTIVE The aim is to quantify the gender, social, and geographical inequalities in DFLE among Italian older adults and analyse the age-specific contribution of mortality and morbidity to those inequalities. METHODS This study draws on census-linked mortality data and disability prevalence for the years 2012–2014. DFLE at age 65 in Italian regions is computed by gender and educational attainment using the Sullivan method. Age-specific mortality–morbidity contributions to the gender and educational gaps in DFLE are calculated using the stepwise decomposition method. RESULTS Although at the national level older women and men share similar DFLE, these estimates hide important geographical and social inequalities. Women’s health disadvantage completely outweighs their life expectancy advantage, resulting in lower DFLE. Educational inequalities in health are far more dramatic than those in mortality and the disadvantage in DFLE accumulates over education and region of residence. CONCLUSIONS In Italy notable differences in DFLE are found between genders and between educational groups, suggesting the need for better health policies aimed at reducing inequalities. ; Peer reviewed |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
We thank Viviana Egidi for supervising and encouraging this research, Marie-Pier Bergeron Boucher and Jim Oeppen for their valuable comments on the manuscript, three anonymous reviewers and the editor of Demographic Research for their contribution to the final version of the manuscript, and Sante Orsini, AVQ survey director, for providing customised elaborations of aggregated data used in the analysis for the years 2013 and 2014. Margherita Moretti thanks Jeroen Spijker and Pilar Zueras for their comments on the first steps of the research. Cosmo Strozza’s research is supported by the AXA Research Fund, through funding for the AXA Chair in Longevity Research.; https://hdl.handle.net/10138/565349; 000893740300001 |
| Availability: |
https://hdl.handle.net/10138/565349 |
| Rights: |
cc_by ; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess ; openAccess |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.9D4DFA75 |
| Database: |
BASE |