Average years of healthy life (without disabilities). Argentina 2002-2003

CARRIZO,ELVIRA; PELÁEZ, ENRIQUE; GONZÁLEZ, LEANDRO; ALVAREZ, MARÍA

Revista de Salud Pública, Journal of Public Health, Colombia

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Lugar: Bogota, Colombia; Año: 2010

0124-0064

The continuous increase in life expectancy as a result of declining mortality in recent decades, has important health and social consequences, such as increasing in elder people, the prevalence of chronic diseases and disability in the morbidity pattern. It is clear that older people have specific and more complex health requirements than younger people. The needs of people with disability are a demand that public health systems and epidemiological surveillance in general do not document or record; neither is the prevalence or incidence of disabilities through all stages of life recorded. The aim of this paper is to calculate the average years of life with and without disabilities, for each of the three types of disabilities surveyed in the first National Disability Survey of Argentina (ENDI, 2002-2003): motor, mental, visual and hearing disabilities. Figures of people with disabilities by quinquennial age group and type of disability listed in ENDI are used, also vital statistics information necessary for making life tables. The analysis of healthy years of life by sex an age groups, such as calculating the average years to live with each of the three mentioned disabilities, show that women live longer with and without disabilities than men, but the average in healthy years is higher in men. It is also found that the highest average years lived with disabilities is due to motor problems.