Page 18 - IJPS-4-2

International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Gender difference in trends in healthy

life expectancy in 2005–2012 for adults

aged 50 years and older in South Africa

Witness Chirinda *, Yasuhiko Saito , Danan Gu and Nompumelelo Zungu 4,5
1
2
3
1 Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape
Town, South Africa, Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan, United Nations Population
3
2
Division, New York, USA, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa,
4
5 Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Abstract: Data characterizing older people’s life expectancy by good or poor health is
important for policy and fiscal planning. This study aims to examine trends and investigate
gender differences in healthy life expectancy (HLE) for older people in South Africa for the
period 2005–2012. Using data from three repeated cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2005,
2008, and 2012, we applied a self-rated health measure to estimating HLE. The Sullivan
method was used in the calculations. We found that unhealthy life expectancy decreased over
the period, while HLE and the proportion of life spent in good health increased more than
ARTICLE INFO total life expectancy in the same period. Gender disparities were evident: Women had higher
Received: March 11, 2018 life expectancy than men, yet they spent a greater proportion of their lifetime in poor health.
Accepted: April 24, 2018 We concluded that HLE of older people in South Africa has improved over the period under
Published: May 6, 2018 investigation.
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Keywords: gender difference; health expectancies; healthy life expectancy; older
Witness Chirinda, Health Systems adults; self-rated health; South Africa; Sullivan method
Research Unit,
South African Medical Research
Council, Cape Town, South Africa 1. Introduction
wchirinda@mrc.ac.za
Populations are rapidly growing older across the globe. The proportion of people aged
CITATION 60 years and over is growing at a faster rate than any other age group (United Nations,
Chirinda W, Saito Y, Gu D, 2017). Coupled with this, the length of life has also increased dramatically in most parts of
Zungu M (2018), Gender the world. Initially, this demographic transition was experienced in developed countries,
difference in trends in healthy but of late, it has become a global phenomenon experienced by less developed regions as
life expectancy in 2005–2012 for well. In South Africa, life expectancy at birth in the period of 2002–2014 increased from
adults aged 50 years and older in
South Africa. International Journal 51.1 years to 59.1 years for males and from 55.7 years to 63.1 years for females (Statistics
of Population Studies, 4(2): 12-22. South Africa, 2014). However, between 2002 and 2005, life expectancy declined due to
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v4i2.704 the HIV epidemic. Nevertheless, there has since been an upward trend partly due to the
Copyright: © 2018 Chirinda W, successful roll-out of antiretroviral treatment (ART) (Bor, Herbst, Newell et al., 2013;
Saito Y, Gu D, Zungu N. This Mayosi and Benatar, 2014; Statistics South Africa, 2014). According to the United Nations,
is an Open Access article the proportion of South Africans aged 60 years and over increased from 6.7% in 2005
distributed under the terms of the to 8.0% in 2017 and is projected to double to 15.9% in 2050 due to gains in improved
Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International longevity (United Nations, 2017). Against this background, one interesting question is
License (http://creativecommons. whether the gains in longer life are being accompanied by healthy and productive lives or
org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), by periods of illness, frailty, and more dependency. In other words, is the number of years
permitting all noncommercial use, gained being matched by quality in terms of health and well-being?
distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the To answer the question about trends in mortality and morbidity, there is a need to
original work is properly cited. develop a population health measure that combines the two components together into

12 International Journal of Population Studies | 2018, Volume 4, Issue 2