title: Aging and health in France: an unexpected expansion of disability in mid-adulthood over recent years.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study presents new disability-free life expectancies (DFLE) estimates for France and discusses recent trends in the framework of the three 'health and aging' theories of compression, dynamic equilibrium and expansion of disability. The objectives are to update information for France and to compare two methods to analyse recent trends.
  
  
  METHODS
  DFLE at ages 50, 65 and in the 50-65 age group are computed for several disability dimensions, using data from five French surveys over the 2000s. Owing to scarce time series, we used two methods to assess trends and consolidate our conclusions: (i) decomposition of the DFLE changes using the available time series; (ii) linear regression using all the available estimates, classified by disability dimensions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Trends in DFLE65 prolonged the dynamic equilibrium of the previous decades: increasing life expectancy with functional limitations but not with activity restrictions. Meanwhile, partial DFLE50-65 has decreased for various disability dimensions, including some activity restrictions, especially for women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  France has recently experienced an unexpected expansion of disability in mid-adulthood while it is still on a trend of dynamic equilibrium at older ages. The study highlights the importance of monitoring trends in DFLE for various disability dimensions and broadens the scope of interest to the mid-adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Institut National d'Études Démographiques, Mortality, health and epidemiology, Paris, France. cambois@ined.fr
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cambois
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blachier
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Robine
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy / Q000639:trends*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors