Health Inequality by Economic Status: Based on Functional Limitation Free-Life Expectancy

Abstract

With the rapid process of population aging, inequality in health and mortality has drawn much attention from the society. This study approaches the issue of health inequality with measures involving life expectancy: total life expectancy, functional limitation-free life expectancy, and its share of total life expectancy. It pays a special attention to how these measures are associated with economic resources for older people aged from 55 and 80. By employing multistate life table method with the data from the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel (n=5,628), this study shows that differences between high and low income are observed for all the three measures. This is particularly true for functional limitation-free life expectancy. This implies that economic resource is an important factor to lead longer and healthier life. Based on these findings, this study suggests that policy makers should consider variations in healthy aging by socioeconomic status in formulating social welfare policies.