Self-assessed health expectancy among older adults: A comparison of six Asian settings

Abstract

Self-assessed health has been found to be a strong predictor of changes in health and mortality and has been included in many surveys of health and aging around the world. In this article, we estimate expectancies in self-assessed health at age 60 and above and compare them across six Asian settings (China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand). Data used in the analysis come from national surveys conducted in the mid 1990s. Self-assessed health is dichotomized into categories reflecting negative versus neutral or positive health ratings, and the Sullivan method is used to estimate the years and proportion of remaining life spent in a healthy self-assessed state by age and sex. Results suggest that patterns of health expectancy by age and sex are similar across the six settings. The patterns are consistent with those from other studies of health expectancy that utilize different health measures and are based in different regions of the world. © 2005, Institute of Aging Studies.