Life expectancy and self-reported health: related factors in 36 countries

Life expectancy at birth (LE) is the most commonly used objective measure to describe population health reflecting mortality from all causes at all ages. Self-reported health (SRH) is a subjective measure that has been shown as a good predictor of hospitalization and mortality. We explored the correlations between these two variables and 22 indicators relating to 10 areas (Housing, Income, Jobs, Community, Education, Environment, Civic engagement, Life satisfaction, Safety, Work-life balance) in all 34 OECD countries plus Russia and Brazil. All data were taken from OECD Better Life Index set, reference years: 2011, 2012 and 2013. Data were evaluated using Kendall’s tau correlation test, Bonferroni correction was applied and p set at 0.0023. There was no strong significant correlation between LE and SRH (p 0.0182). LE showed statistically significant negative association with ‘‘Percentage of dwellings without indoor toilet’’ (p 0.0008) and ‘‘Homicide rate’’ (p 0.0009) and positive association with all Income group variables (‘‘Household net adjusted disposable income’’, p 0.0002; ‘‘Household net financial wealth’’, p 0.0001), ‘‘Personal earnings’’ (p 0.0021) and ‘‘Water quality’’ (p 0.0013). SRH was negatively correlated with ‘‘Percentage of dwellings without indoor toilet’’ (p < 0.0001) and positively correlated with ‘‘Number of rooms per person’’ (p < 0.0001), ‘‘Personal earnings’’ (p 0.0009), ‘‘Quality of support network’’ (p 0.0006) and ‘‘Life satisfaction’’ (p 0.0002). The only two variables that correlate strongly with both LE and SRH are ‘‘Percentage of dwellings without indoor toilet’’ and ‘‘Personal earnings’’. Our results show that LE and SRH reflect different aspects of population health. SRH seems to underestimate the importance of Income and Environment variables while LE results not associated with indicators relevant for quality of life. Key messages Life expectancy and self-reported health are both important measures that reflects different aspects of health. They should not replace but complement each other Level of average earnings and percentage of dwellings without indoor toilet can be considered as good objective and subjective population health indicators