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Life Expectancy: Healthy and Disability-Free Years by Districts
2001

September 2007

Photograph of an elderly lady and a baby

Introduction

Information on life expectancy at birth is widely used as an indicator of the state of the nation's health and up-dated estimates are periodically produced by the (External) Office for National Statistics (ONS) . Information for Lancashire can be found elsewhere on the Lancashire Profile both for local authority districts (in the Life Expectancy at Birth by Local Authority Research Monitor ) and as so-called "experimental statistics" for Lancashire wards (in the Life Expectancy at Birth by Ward Research Monitor ). Over more recent years, in response to uncertainties surrounding the impact of an aging population on the future labour market and the demand for health and social care services, there has been growing interest in extending the concept of life expectancy in terms of "health expectancies", that is to say, the number of years expected to be lived in good health or without a disability. UK and constituent countries estimates using information obtained from the General Household Survey have been available for several years. For the first time the ONS has published information on "healthy life expectancy" (HLE) and "disability-free life expectancy" (DFLE) for individual local authorities in England. Based on 2001 Census of Population, data is provided for each of these measures both for expectations "at birth" and "at age 65".

Lancashire Results

Healthy life expectancy is defined as the average number of years a person aged "x" would live in good/fairly good health if he or she experiences the particular area's age-specific mortality and health rates for 2001 throughout their life. Likewise, disability-free life expectancy is defined as the average number of years a person aged "x" would live disability-free (no limiting long-term illness) if he or she experienced the particular area's age-specific mortality and health rates for 2001 throughout their life.

These figures reflect current mortality and morbidity experiences of those living in the area in 2001. They do not indicate how long people living in the area (newly born or aged 65) can expect to live in the future in good/fairly good health, as both death and health rates are likely to change in the future, and many of those living in the area are likely to move and live elsewhere at least some part of their lives.

In terms of the basic benchmark, life expectancy at birth, Lancashire districts display a wide range of outcomes although overall there is a significant skew towards poorer expectancy rates than the England average. In the case of males , for example, in 2001 local life expectancy ranged from nearly 77 years to under 72 years (Table 1) and just three of the 14 Lancashire districts had life expectancies at birth at or above the England average and only two districts (Fylde and South Ribble ranked within the top 50% authorities in England. Conversely, no less than eight Lancashire districts had male life expectancy rates that ranked them amongst the poorest 20% in England with the status of Blackpool being second from bottom behind Manchester. Close to five years separated male life expectancy in Blackpool from Fylde and Ribble Valley and nearly eight years from England's highest-ranking districts such as Rutland and East Dorset. Female life expectancy at birth tends to be slightly longer than for males (though this difference has narrowed over recent years) but the overall geographical distribution in Lancashire relative to the nation was very similar (Table 2). Thus, three local districts had expectancies at or above the England average and again, just two districts were within the top ranking 50% (Ribble Valley and Wyre). Nine districts, however, had female life expectancy rates that were ranked amongst the poorest 20% in England and five of these were in the poorest 10% with Blackburn with Darwen occupying the fifth lowest position in England. Some 3.4 years separated female life expectancy in Blackburn from that in Ribble Valley and over six years from England's highest place district Kensington & Chelsea.

In terms of the second component contained in this dataset, life expectancy at age 65, the overall picture is not too dissimilar to that described above, although there is some re-ordering between districts in their relative rankings and the skew towards poorer rates is marginally less pronounced, particularly in the case of males. Thus, in 2001 for males aged 65, four Lancashire districts had life expectancies at or above the England average of 16.1 years, though only Ribble Valley's rate of 16.4 years was in the top 50% of England local authorities. Seven districts had male life expectancy rates at age 65 amongst the poorest 20% in England and three of these (Blackburn, Blackpool and Hyndburn) were in the poorest 10%, though the rankings of Blackburn and especially Blackpool were slightly less extreme than in the case of the expectancy at birth figures. For females aged 65 life expectancy stood at 19.2 years in England and only three Lancashire districts were at or above this figure and only Wyre was in the England top 50%. At the other extreme, eight Lancashire districts had female age 65 life expectancy of between 17.7 and 18.2 years, placing them in the poorest 90% of England's local authorities.

Quantification of life expectancy in terms of years spent as "healthy" and "disability-free" is also given in Tables 1 and 2. As might be expected, there is a very close correspondence between these measures and total life expectancy at birth. Generally speaking, those districts that have the longest life expectancies at birth also enjoy more years of both healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy, and vice versa. For example, in the case of males, Ribble Valley has one of the highest life expectancies at birth in Lancashire at 76.6 years, which is slightly above the England average. Of this total about 70.8 years can be expected to be lived in good or fairly good health (a difference of 5.8 years), whilst 63.2 years can be expected to be lived without any limiting long-term disability (a difference of 13.4 years). Compare this with Burnley. In Burnley, male life expectancy at birth is estimated at 74.4 years or 2.2 years less than in Ribble Valley (and 1.6 years less than the England average). Of this total just 65.3 years can be expected to be lived in good/fairly god health (a difference of 9.1 years) whilst 57.3 years can be expected to be lived without a long-term disability (a difference of 17.1 years. This geographical pattern in which districts with the lowest life expectancies at birth also have a higher risk of spending more years in poor health or with a limiting disability, also applies to females. With rather longer life expectancy at birth than males, females also have higher healthy life and disability-free expectancies, but there is no firm evidence to suggest that the time spent in poor health or with a disability is proportionally different from that of males.

Life expectancy at age 65 for both males and females in Lancashire continues to increase but remain below the England average. The same is true of healthy life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy. In England in 2001 at age 65 men could expect to live a further 12.5 years in good or fairly good health (and by deduction, 3.6 years in poor health) whilst the corresponding estimate for women was 14.5 years (with 4.7 years in poor health). In terms of disability-free expectation the respective figures are 8.1 years for men and 9.1 years for women. Just two Lancashire districts (Fylde and Ribble Valley) have both male and female for HLE and DFLE above this national average.

Across Lancashire healthy life expectancy for men aged 65 ranges from a high of 13.2 years in Ribble Valley (with 3.2 years in poor health) to just 10.6 years in Hyndburn (and with 4.2 years in poor health. In the case of women aged 65 healthy life expectancy extends from 14.8 years (with 4.3 years in poor health) in Ribble Valley to 12.4 years in Blackburn (with 5.3 years in poor health. The length of time for those aged 65 which is expected to be disability-free is much shorter than health life expectation for both males and females but the geographical pattern across the sub-region remains much the same with in general higher income/socio-economic status areas having better outturns than districts perceived as having higher levels of social and economic deprivation.

Note on the Data

The ONS estimates of healthy and disability-free expectancy are calculated by combining age and sex specific mortality rates (life tables), with age and sex specific rates on general health and limiting long-term illness from the 2001 Census. These estimates are subject to margins of error and 95% confidence intervals, which indicate precision, are shown alongside each estimate in the accompanying data in the Data Download Centre . Unlike an earlier Research Monitor on Health Expectancy by Ward that includes district information derived from a summation of ward estimates, the data in this article are classified as National Statistic. Since these estimates are based on the 2001 Census data, they cannot be updated on a regular basis. However, ONS anticipate that both HLE and DFLE estimates for local authorities will be updated when data from the 2011 Census becomes available.

This page was compiled by Peter Kivell .

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