The Wealthier Live Healthier and Longer... 'Healthspan' Gap Up to 9 Years

Health Life Expectancy Gap Up to 9 Years Due to Income Differences
Female Health Life Expectancy 73.98 Years, Male 69.43 Years
Policy Efforts Needed to Address Health Life Expectancy Inequality

'Healthy life expectancy' also shows a gap between the rich and the poor. Healthy life expectancy refers to the period during which a person can live healthily without experiencing disease or disability, within their overall life expectancy.

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According to the medical community on the 5th, a research team led by Professor Yoon Seok-jun from the Department of Preventive Medicine at Korea University College of Medicine analyzed the relationship between income levels and 'healthy life expectancy' among Koreans using health insurance data from 2008 to 2020. The results showed that the higher the income level, the longer and healthier the lifespan, with a gap reaching up to 9 years.

In particular, a significant difference in healthy life expectancy was found according to income level. When income was divided into five quintiles based on health insurance premium amounts, the healthy life expectancy of the highest income group was 74.88 years, which was 8.66 years longer than that of the lowest income group (66.22 years). The research team explained that most of this gap is due to the healthy life expectancy of the lowest income group being significantly lower than that of other income quintiles. By gender, as of 2020, women's healthy life expectancy was 73.98 years, which was 4.55 years longer than men's (69.43 years).

Life expectancy increased by 3.72 years from 80.83 years in 2008 to 84.55 years in 2020, with men at 81.48 years and women at 87.39 years as of 2020. The gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy widened from 11.94 years in 2008 to 12.73 years in 2020, indicating that while life expectancy has increased, healthy life expectancy has not increased proportionally.

Based on these results, the research team emphasized the need to develop strategies to reduce health inequalities by prioritizing groups with shorter healthy life expectancy. Professor Yoon stated, "Policy efforts are needed, such as establishing selective health promotion strategies targeting low-income groups."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.