A new report released today by the Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare examines trends in life and health expectancy
for people with and without disabilities over the period from 1988
to 2003.
The report, Life expectancy and disability in Australia
1988-2003, examines whether the years of life lived with
disability are increasing along with overall gains in life
expectancy.
'While life expectancy refers to the average number of years a
person of a given age and sex can expect to live, health expectancy
extends that concept to include disease and disability, and refers
to the number of years a person could expect to live in a defined
state of health,' explains report author Dr Xingyan Wen.
'As people are living longer, they are living a greater part of
their life with a disability. This is especially true for older
Australians, although this related chiefly to those with a less
severe disability.
'The ageing of the Australian population and the greater
longevity of individuals are leading to more people, especially
those at older ages, with a disability,' Dr Wen said.
Overall, females had higher life and health expectancies than
males, in both the years with disability and the years free from
disability, although these gaps were much smaller at older
ages.
In 2003, males could expect, on average, to experience 18.6
years of life with a disability, whereas females could expect 20.7
years of life lived with a disability.
Those figures changed when the disability was severe, or
profoundly activity limiting, for example when assistance was
needed for self-care, mobility and/or communication. In those
cases, the figures dropped to 5.4 years for males and to 8.3 years
for females.
However, the proportion of expected life free from disability
and, in particular, free from a severe or profound activity
limitation, was lower for older females than for older males.
1 September 2006
Further information: Dr Xingyan Wen, AIHW, tel.
02 6244 1177, mob. 0418 271 395.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of the Life expectancy and
disability in Australia 1988-2003 report.