Diferenças por escolaridade e sexo na expectativa de vida com incapacidade funcional para os idosos: Brasil, 1998 e 2003 / Educational and sex differences in the functional disability life expectancy for the elderly: Brazil, 1998 and 2003

ABSTRACT

This study estimates educational inequalities of the functional disability life expectancy by age and sex for the Brazilian elderly, and it introduces a time comparison by means of a decomposition analysis. Data were from the National Household Survey and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, for 1998 and 2003. The expected number and proportion of years lived with functional disability and difficulty to perform activities of daily life were estimated using the Sullivan method. Results revealed that life expectancy increased for both sexes, especially for women and concentrated in the oldest elderly (age above 80 years-old). Women lived longer, with and without functional disability, but a small percentage disability-free as compared to men. Education also improved the proportion of time lived without functional disability for both sexes. Overtime, functional disability increased for both sexes, especially among the oldest, while functional difficulty in performing activities of daily-life expectancy decreased, except for more educated males. These trends suggest compression of functional disability among the oldest aged in Brazil and a general decrease in difficulty or disability, regardless of the educational status. Although the proportion of functional disability life expectancy declined for all educational groups, the educational gap in functional disability persists. Thus, given the influence of education on healthy behaviors, improvements in education shall add to the increase in elderly overall healthy life and reduce demand on health care system in the most critical stage of human life cycle.