title: Health profiles and profile-specific health expectancies of older women and men: The Netherlands.
abstract: This study focuses on gender differences in health profiles, and examines which health profiles drive gender differences in remaining life expectancy in women and men aged 65 and over in The Netherlands. Data from the first two cycles of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (n = 2,141 and 1,659, respectively) were used to calculate health profiles for individuals of 65-85 years. For both women and men, six profiles were found: I. cancer; II. "other" chronic diseases; III. cognitive impairment; IV. frailty or multimorbidity; V. cardiovascular diseases; and VI. good health. The further characterization of these types showed some gender differences. Remaining life expectancy for women was greater than for men in each health profile. A decomposition into health expectancies showed that both women and men could expect to live about 5 years in good health from age 66. The greatest gender differences in years spent with health problems were found for profile IV and for profile III. Their greater number of years spent in these health states have direct consequences for the type and cost of care women need.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. djh.deeg.emgo@med.vu.nl
authors.forename: Dorly J H
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Deeg
authors.forename: France
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Portrait
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindeboom
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors