Lagging behind in health and work expectancies: Increasing disadvantage of individuals with lower educational level...

Many governments increased the retirement age in response to population ageing. Against this backdrop, it remains unclear whether the development in healthy life years can keep pace with the increase in working life years and whether people with lower socio-economic status are left behind. We investigated time trends in healthy life years and healthy working life years and how trends differ between educational groups in Germany.

Temporal trends in partial life expectancy between age 30 and 69 were assessed using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP, N=40,150) of three educational groups. Based on this, education-specific (Un)Healthy Life Expectancy ((U)HLE) and (Un)Healthy Working Life Expectancy ((U)HWLE) were calculated using the Sullivan method. Health is assessed on the basis of two health indicators: the physical and the mental score of health-related quality of life (p/mHRQoL). Both has been shown to be important indicators for working-age health.

With respect to pHRQoL, HLE increased among men and women with higher educational attainment while it decreased in men with lower educational level. HWLE increased stronger in men and women with higher than with lower educational attainment. UHWLE increased strongest in persons with lower educational attainment. In terms of mHRQoL, HLE increased in all educational groups except for the group of women with lower educational attainment. UHLE decreased among men and women with middle and higher educational level. HWLE increased in all groups, with increases being strongest among higher educated individuals. UHLE increased in women with lower educational attainment but decreased in men and women with higher educational level.

We found polarising trends, with healthy life years and healthy working years developing less favourably among people with lower than with higher educational level. This applies to both the physical and mental component of HRQoL. The study shows that people with lower educational level are less able to keep pace with the prolonged working life from a health perspective and that more effective prevention is needed to stop the widening of health inequalities in working age.