HEALTHY LIFE EXPECTANCY AND ITS TRENDS IN THE BRAZILIAN ELDERLY POPULATION FROM 1998 TO 2019
Context: Brazil is the 50 country with the highest life expectancy at age 60 (LE60) in South America and only the 70 with the highest healthy life expectancy at age 60 (HLE60 ), which highlights the need to analyze the EVS and its trends in the Brazilian elderly population.
Methods: An analysis of a historical series of the VE60 of the Brazilian population was carried out, using data related to functional disability, self-perception of health and multimorbidities from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) in the years 1998, 2003 and 2008 and from the Survey National Health (PNS) 2013 and 2019, both carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). For this purpose, the HLE, free of disabilities (DFLE), free of multimorbidities (MFLE) and with self-perceived good health (GHLE) were calculated using the Sullivan method.
Results: Brazilian elderly showed an increase in HLE (2.55%), DFLE (3.06%), MFLE (3.04%), GHLE (3.20%). Women have a higher life expectancy throughout the analyzed period, but have a lower HLE, DFLE, MFLE and GHLE when compared to men, which could be verified in all Brazilian regions.
Interpretation: Women showed a relative compression with an increase of 3.7% (3.4-3.9) in the proportion of healthy years and an increase in the number of unhealthy years (0.74 years [0.76-0.77] ). In both sexes, the Southeast and North regions presented, respectively, the largest and smallest increase in SVS. Men showed absolute compression of all health dimensions analyzed, as well as women in terms of DFLE and GHLE, but in MFLE they showed relative compression. These discrepancies by gender reinforce the gender health-survival paradigm, confirming that men with greater longevity feel more useful and healthier.
Life expectancy, Multimorbity, Self-perceived health.