Ageing and health in Italy: where are we going?

While life expectancy is constantly increasing in all European Countries, studies in disability trends have not shown such clear improvement, resulting in increases, decreases or stagnation in disability prevalence over time, and the debate on health expectancies of European populations is still open. The actual economic crisis has added further substance to this debate, and most studies focusing on this issue show how the effects of the crisis may differently affect the health behaviours of populations. This study is aimed to contribute to this debate, by estimating the health expectancy of the population aged 60 years and over in Italy in 2008-2009 and 2012-2013. The analysis is based on longitudinal data from the Statistic on Income and Living Conditions -SILC survey, and follows a multi-state table approach. Results are consistent with the literature : in both period women live longer than men but they show longer life expectancy with disability. Despite the economic downturn, globally we found no evidence of a general deterioration of health status; but in 2012-13 results show a relative deterioration of the health status of women in respect to men. The added value of this study is to exploit for the first time in Italy the information on health provided by the Italian SILC longitudinal component.