2011, Paris, France

23rd REVES meeting, Paris, France

The 23rd meeting of REVES was held in Paris, France, on May 25-27, 2011.

  • Organization committee: Emmanuelle Cambois (INED) et Leila Oumeddour (INED), Isabelle Romieu, Jean-Marie Robine (INSERM),
  • Local scientific committee: Nicolas Brouard (INED), France Meslé (INED), Jacques Vallin (INED)

Are sex differences in health expectancy a social issue?

For the last ten years social epidemiology has shown that physical and mental health builds itself up and can evolve positively or negatively along life trajectories. Living conditions (as early as childhood), behaviours and exposures in living and working environments, social support and life events influence positive/negative health conditions which are very differentiated by sex. They also condition the resources which enable one to take care of one’s health, and with which one buffers health problems. 

...

Under social norms, life trajectories and key events punctuating them have an impact on health. They are not conceived, perceived or lived identically by men and women. We can therefore consider that gender is explicitly regarded as a social health determinant, suggesting the study of links between women’s health and their social role, their position within the family and in the labour market. The caring role "assigned" to women for themselves and their family has been widely studied in the social science. These studies have shown how this role, even if it increases women health skills, can, generate material, social, physical and mental fragility. In the field of health, research based on survey data show striking differences between men and women in most health indicators and the risk of dying. These assessments reinforced by work in social epidemiology and social sciences invite us to deepen studies on health differences through the lens of gender. Using this perspective and in order to open new research avenues, we would like to devote part of this meeting to studying gender effects on healthy life expectancy. The objective of this will be to gather research on the disability process and health expectancies among men and women to increase understanding on the role of sex/gender differences and to answer the following question: "are sex differences in health expectancy a social issue?

Programme of the meeting

The programme of the 3-day REVES meeting was made of 4 thematic sessions each day, with 3 oral presentations each as well as associated posters dealing with: Gender health differences / Health expectancies: trends & causes / Health and disability transitions / Determinants of Longevity / Living with disability Methods (programme presented below, the slides of the presentations are accessible hereunder by clicking on the authors' name).

The REVES23 George Myers Lecture was presented by Jennifer Madans. Associate Director for Science, National Centre for Health Statistics (USA). "In Pursuit of Internationally Comparable Measures of Disability: Travelling with the Washington Group".

Training session. The 23d REVES meeting is preceeded by a training session on "Health expectancy - decomposition techniques: Example of gender differences" held at INED (Paris) on the day before the meeting opening. The training is conducted by Dr Wilma Nusselder.

Sponsorships allowed to invite 3 researchers of the field to participate in the meeting. The statistical department of the ministry of health (DREES/CNSA), the federative research institute on handicap (IFRH) as well as the national institute for demographic studies (INED) have sponsored this meeting.

Programme

Session 1 - Gender health differences
E Cambois, A Sieurin, JM Robine. To what extent gender specific health and social patterns explain the recent diverging trends in male and female disability-free life expectancy?
JW Bruggink. Gender differences in Dutch health expectancies and the role of socio-economic status
M Luy. Sex differences in health and mortality: obtained results and future aims of the "cloister study"

Session 2 - Determinants of Longevity
AP Belon, M Guimaraes Lima, M Berti de Azevedo Barros. Trends in healthy life expectancy among elderly in a city of Southeastern Brazil
M Lagergren, M Thorslun, M Parker. A comparison of Healthy Life Years (HLY) in Sweden 1980-2006 when using different health indicators
M Smith, O Olatunde, C White. Inequalities in disability-free life expectancy by area deprivation: England, 2001-04 and 2005-08

Session 3 - Health expectancies: trends & causes
J Ailshire, E Crimmins, H Beltran-Sanchez. Exceptional Survivors in the Health and Retirement Study: Comparisons of Health, Well Being, and Functioning by Survivorship, Gender, Race/ethnicity, and Education
L Gavrilov, N Gavrilova. Sex differences in familial transmission of human longevity
M Lopez-Ortega. Socioeconomic determinants of inequality in health and survival: the Mexican experience

Session 4 - Health and disability transitions
M Vliet, M Huisman, D Deeg. Explaining observed period differences in mobility and self-care decline in older adults
M Arezzo, Cristina Giudici, M Sebastiani. Transition probabilities to chronic illness, dependency and death in Italy: evidence from IT SILC survey
Z Zimmer. Disability Trajectories by Age, Sex, and Education, among Older Adults in Taiwan

Session 5 - Health expectancies: trends & causes
Y Yan. Disparities in Activities of Daily Living Between Elderly Males and Females in China
K Qalalwa, M Khawaja, H Brønnum-Hansen. Health expectancy in Palestine 2006
D Brown. Spousal Education and Morbidity in the United States

Session 6 - Gender differences
A Kingston, L Robinson, J Collerton, K Davies, J Bond, T Kirkwood, C Jagger. Gender difference in disease patterns and their impact on disability in the oldest old : results from the Newcastle 85+ Study
S Lynch, S Brown. The Role of Socioeconomic Status in Producing Sex Differences in Healthy Life Expectancy in the US over the last four decades
H Van Oyen, P Kolip, EHLEIS. Gender differences in Healthy Life Years within the EU : an exploration of the "health-survival" paradox

Session 7 - Health and disability transitions
L Bonneux. Forecasting ADL disability in the European Union
J Karas Montez, M Hayward. The Gender Gap in Active Life Expectancy: Does Women's Longer Life in Worse Health Originate in Early Life?
H Galenkamp, A Braam, M Huisman, D Deeg. Trends in Subjective and Objective Health in Dutch Older Men and Women

Session 8 - Living with disability
A Van Den Hout, R Marioni, F Matthews. Estimating life expectancies using a multi-state model for stroke with sex and education as risk factors
H Meltzer. Is disability a risk factor for suicide attempts?
H Beltran-Sanchez, J Ailshire. Sex Differences in the Risk of Death by Health Status, Physical Functioning, and Health Behaviours

Session 9 - Living with disability
L Loukine, C Waters, J Ellison. Life Expectancy and Health Adjusted Life Expectancy Among Canadians with Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus
P Deboosere, H Van Oyen. Gender differences in mortality by self-assessed health: a 3 year follow-up study of the Belgian population
V Young, CT sun Chiu, Y Saito. What is the active life expectancy of elderly Japanese with and without stroke? An application of the SPACE program

Session 10 - Methods
M Guillot, H Sik Kim. Trends in healthy survival: a cohort approach
B Novak, A Palloni. Subjective Survival Expectations and Observed Survival: What Makes them Different?
X Liu, C Engel. Predicting Longitudinal Trajectories of Health Probabilities with Random-effects Multinomial Logit Model

Session 11 - Health expectancies: trends & causes
KH Billy She. Differences in health status and health expectancies by gender and geographical districts in Hong Kong.
R Marioni, A van den Hout, M Valenzuela, C Brayne, F Matthews. Education, occupation, and late-life social engagement and their effects on cognitive impaired life expectancy
M McFarland, M Hayward, D Brown. Marital Biography and Health in Older Adulthood: Exploring the "Under the Skin Processes"

Session 12 - Gender differences
M Parker, M Gomez Leon . Gender differences in LE without joint pain at age 65
M Gomez Leon. The sex gap in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in Cuba
S Reynolds. Gender Differences in the Impact of Obesity and Physical Activity on Active Life Expectancy