Health Expectancies in Adults Aged 50 Years or Older in China.
The purpose of this study is to understand the functional health of older adults in China and to assess the potential for advancing healthy and active aging.



Data of 13,739 older adults aged 50 years and older from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2011 were analyzed. Life expectancy in good perceived health, chronic-disease-free life expectancy, active life expectancy, and severe impairment-free life expectancy were calculated using Sullivan's method.



At age 50 years, older adults had a life expectancy in good perceived health of 7.0 and 6.7 years in men and women, respectively. They would remain chronic-disease-free for 8.4 and 8.6 years, without activity limitation for 23.6 and 26.0 years, and severe impairment-free for 21.4 and 24.2 years.



The world's largest aging population was spending a substantial proportion of remaining life years in suboptimal health and well-being, while remaining largely independent in basic self-care without severe impairments.
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Hao
H
Luo
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong ghywong@hku.hk.
Gloria H Y
GH
Wong
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Terry Y S
TY
Lum
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Minxia
M
Luo
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research, Canberra, Australia.
Cathy H
CH
Gong
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research, Canberra, Australia.
Hal
H
Kendig
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
CHARLS; China; Sullivan’s method; active life expectancy; health expectancies