[Assessment of disability-free life expectancy in Lithuania]

THE AIM of the study was to evaluate disability-free life expectancy of Lithuanian males and females in 2001.

The data about the Lithuanian population and the deceased were available from the Statistics Lithuania, while information about the prevalence of disability was obtained from the Population and Housing Census performed in 2001, where the question on the registered disability was included. The method, presented first by Sullivan in 1971, was applied for the assessment of disability-free life expectancy.

Disability-free life expectancy of Lithuanian males and females was 60.6 and 70.6 years, respectively, accounting for 91.9% of male and 91.0% of female total life expectancy. At the age of 65, disability-free life expectancy was 6.2 years for males and 11.7 for females (45.8% and 64.9% of total life expectancy for males and females, respectively). Disability-free life expectancy declined more intensively with increasing age, comparing to total life expectancy. Disability-free life expectancy of females exceeded that of males by 10 years, while life expectancy with disability did not differ significantly.

Monitoring of disability-free life expectancy, based on officially registered disability and mortality statistics, should be used for the assessment of economic and social burden of disability for the society and state.