2011, Paris, France

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?

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