LIVING LONGER BUT NOT NECESSARILY HEALTHIER: EVIDENCE FROM THE UK’S POPULATION BASED SURVEYS
The 20th century witnessed significant improvements in health in most countries including substantial increases in survival to older ages and large reductions in late age mortality. The continuing rise in life expectancy is undoubtedly one of the great successes of public health, but has also raised the question of how healthily the gained years of life will be spent. We use data from UK’s birth cohorts, other longitudinal studies and repeated cross sectional surveys to investigate competing theories of the joint progress of health and mortality. Sullivan’s method and regression based approaches were employed exploiting their different underlying assumptions to empirically test the compression, expansion and dynamic equilibrium of morbidity hypotheses. We found evidence for expansion of morbidity in the working age population, whereas a more complex pattern emerged in the older population, indicating a potential structural break between generations. The opportunities and challenges of employing longitudinal and life course studies to empirically test competing theories of ageing and the implications of the recent slowdown in the increase of life expectancy in the UK will be discussed.
George is Professor of Population Health and Statistics at the UCL Department of Social Science and currently holds the posts of Director of Research and Chief Statistician at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies. Prior to joining UCL he held posts at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Cambridge.
Presented by:
George B. Ploubidis, UCL Centre for Longutidinal Studies
Date & time:
June 11, 2018 3:00 pm - June 11, 2018 4:30 pm
Venue:
ISER Large Seminar Room, 2N2 4.16
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