Gender Differences in Health Expectancy among Older Persons in the Philippines

Jeofrey B. Abalos, Australian National University

This paper aims to investigate gender differences in health expectancy of Filipinos aged 60 years old and over. It will also examine patterns in functional difficulty of Filipino older persons by demographic and socio-economic characteristics. The Sullivan’s method will be used to calculate health expectancy among older Filipinos. This method requires data on the age and sex-specific health status of the older population and life expectancy at ages 60 and over. Data on health status of the older persons will be drawn from the 2010 Census of Population and Housing (CPH), while data on life expectancy will be derived from the 2010 life table for the Philippines. Preliminary results reveal that Filipino older women live longer than older men, but the former spend higher proportion of their remaining life in unhealthy state than the latter.