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Alves LC and Arruda NM

and education groups, except for women with either of the low socioeconomic status
indicators in 2008. In the case of heart disease, there were no major differences when
it directly comparing the high-income and high education groups and comparing low
income and low education groups. There was a slight advantage in favor of higher
education compared to the higher income group among women. Greater education is
more highly associated with increased DFLE than high income in both periods among
women. Women’s average disease-free survival was lower than men’s, except for the
higher education group in 2008. For women, being more educated was associated
with higher DFLE values than was the case for the lower education group. Women
experienced greater median survival with heart disease than men. However, being
more highly educated improved the scenario, on average reducing the time spent with
the disease and reducing the difference between men and women.
Diabetes did not exert important influences on the DFLE values. With regards to
income, DFLE did not change considerably between the two periods for the higher
income group, both for the population as a whole and considering each sex separately.
The biggest differences appear to have been between high and low income groups for
men. Women had lower survival without diabetes than men. Median survival without
the disease has increased in both periods and in both sexes, and the increase was
greater among high income women aged 80. By level of education, it is important to
notice the major differences that were observed among women with higher education,
who we see as having longer survival without the disease (18.4 years in 1998 and
18.7 years in 2008), compared to those with higher incomes (17.5 and 17.8 years,
respectively), in both years.
Bronchitis/asthma was the chronic disease among those considered that caused the
least effect; that is, older people had on average a lower lifespan with this disease than
those with other conditions. There were no significant differences when comparing
those with high-income and those with high education, and when comparing those with
low income and those with low schooling. Also, there were no substantial differences
between low income and high income groups, in both sexes and both age groups, in
2008. The less educated had the more years living with the disease during elderly
years. Women had longer survival with the disease than men at all ages considered,
and regardless of which period and socioeconomic status. The DFLE for this condition
decreased for both sexes between 1998 and 2008.
4 Discussion

This study estimated the life expectancy with and without specified chronic diseases
among the Brazilian elderly population, for the years 1998 and 2008, by sex, income
and education. Expected years of survival among elderly individuals with a chronic
disease was higher among those with hypertension, followed by heart disease. For
hypertension, bronchitis/asthma and heart disease, there was a decrease in average
survival without disease between the two periods analyzed, at all socioeconomic
levels, for both sexes and for most ages.
Women lived on average longer with hypertension than men, and this difference is
more pronounced in the lowest income group. In other words, even at lower income
the health situation regarding hypertension is more favorable to men. In 1998, only
women aged 60 and with high income had a longer average time hypertension-free.
In 2008, both younger elderly women and older elderly women also had a longer
survival without the disease than men at comparatively low income. Education has a
much more pronounced effect on blood pressure than income. Having more education
increases the average time without hypertension; the situation is more favorable in this
regard for women than men in both years, except for women aged 80 years.
As for heart disease, the average time lived free of disease is higher for women aged
60 with low education in 1998, and for women 60 years and over who had the lowest
education level in 2008. The high education group had higher DFLE and lower LED
than the high income group considered as a whole, for women, in both periods. The
more highly educated group in 2008 had higher survival without disease in women

International Journal of Population Studies 2017, Volume 3, Issue 1 71