The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s Faculty of Medicine (CU Medicine) and the CUHK Institute of Health Equity conducted a study to assess the temporal trends and area-level socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy (LE) and disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) at age 65 in Hong Kong between 2007 and 2020.
The results showed that the proportion of time old people living with disability has been increasing in Hong Kong. Also, apparent socioeconomic gradients of LE and DFLE were observed across 18 districts in the territory.
The findings have been published in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, an international peer-reviewed medical journal within The Lancet Group.
Professor Roger Chung Yat-nork, Associate Professor in the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care at CU Medicine, said, “Life expectancy considers only the quantity but not quality of life, and so an improved life expectancy does not necessarily reflect a better state of health. The paradigm shift towards functioning and quality of life from simply emphasising the quantity of life alone has led to the development of ‘healthy life expectancy’, broadly defined as the average number of years that a person can expect to live in full health, calculated by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury. In other words, it is a single composite measure that incorporates both mortality and health status.”
Professor Gary Chung Ka-ki, Research Assistant Professor in the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care at CU Medicine, said, “This alarming result implies a substantial increase in the proportion of life spent with disability, leading to an expansion of the disability burden among the Hong Kong population. Our study strongly affirms that it is inadequate to focus on LE alone, which may be a façade that conceals the problems related to the burden of disease. DFLE is a critical indicator that should be routinely adopted in Hong Kong not only to assess and monitor the progress of improvement in population health and healthy ageing, but also to offer a more comprehensive picture of the health equity situation of society.”
The study was supported by the Health Bureau’s Health and Medical Research Fund.
Professor Gary Chung and Professor Roger Chung
Details: Faculty of Medicine, CUHK: http://bit.ly/3T0brdk
Full article of the study: https://bit.ly/3GfEAti
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