A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health shows that while women have a longer life expectancy than men, they often have more disabilities later than life.
During the study, the researchers compared data from studies that were performed in 1982, 2004, and 2011. The studies contained data from individuals age 65 years and older who were enrolled in Medicare. Specifically, the researchers looked at participants who reported that a disability kept them from regular activities.
The date from the study showed that women at age 65 years were estimated to spend 30 percent of their remaining years with a disability in both sets of data from the 1982 and 2011 studies. On the other hand, men at the same age were estimated to spend 22 percent of their remaining years with a disability in 1982 and only 19 percent of their remaining years with a disability in 2011. The data leads to the conclusion that while women have more years to live, fewer of those years are spent active.
The lead author of the study, Vicki A. Freedman of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, expressed some surprise that men surpassed women in disability-free years.
There are many possible explanations for the difference in disability-free years with age. For example, men and women both tend to suffer from different health complications, and there may be more effective ways to treat the problems that men experience, such as heart disease. Older women also tend to have fewer economic resources. Additionally, cigarette smoking has increased among older women, which leads to increased health problems.
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