Lifespan variation among people with a given disease or condition

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Demography
• Public Health

Background:

• Life expectancy is a key metric for excess mortality but overlooks lifespan variation.
• Estimating lifespan variation for individuals with specific health conditions is underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce and apply novel metrics: average life disparity and average lifetable entropy.
• Quantify lifespan variation in women with mental disorders compared to the general population.
• Decompose lifespan variation into early and late components.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Danish register mortality data for a population-based study.
• Calculated average life disparity and average lifetable entropy post-diagnosis.
• Analyzed early and late components of these lifespan variation metrics.

Main Results:

• Women with mental disorders had shorter remaining life expectancy (37.6 vs. 44.9 years).
• They exhibited greater lifespan variation, with higher average life disparity (9.5 vs. 9.1 years) and lifetable entropy (0.33 vs. 0.27).
• Specific patterns emerged: higher early life disparity but lower late life disparity, and consistently higher early and late lifetable entropy in women with mental disorders.

Conclusions:

• Proposed metrics offer a more comprehensive assessment of health and mortality than life expectancy alone.
• These metrics provide new insights into the impact of time-varying conditions on lifespan heterogeneity.
• Findings highlight significant differences in lifespan variation for women with mental disorders, underscoring the need for tailored health interventions.