Effects of handicap on life expectancy: the case of China

The purpose of this study was to quantify and partition the expected years of life with and without handicap for the Chinese population according to v arious types of handicaps, age-sex groups and regions. A large-scale sample survey on handicapped persons conducted in 1987, and t he 1990 population census constitute the basis for computing the expected y ears of life free of handicapped condition using the method proposed by Sul livan. The expected years of life with handicap for the Chinese population in chil dhood (0-14 y), working ages (15-61 y) and the elderly (65 y +) were 0.40, 1.78, and 3.44 for males and 0.34, 1.69, and 4.55 for females. For the Chin ese males over 65 y of age, there were about 1.83 expected years of life wi th aural handicap and 0.59 expected years of life with ocular handicap. For the Chinese females over 65 y of age, there were about 1.87 expected years of life with aural handicap and 1.16 expected years of life with ocular ha ndicap. The burden of living with handicap is greater fur females and the e lderly. This general pattern hold for all types of handicap except for skel etal handicap. The expected years of life with handicap for the Chinese population provide useful information fur setting public health policies, despite the difficu lty in making comparisons with the similar data in other countries.