Estimating disability-free life (DFL) expectancies for Illinois, Chicago and Illinois counties: 2010

Illinois and its counties have experienced a decline in mortality and a significant increase in life expectancy for both males and females. In this paper, years of disability-free life expectancy (YDFL), an indicator used to access part of remaining years of life a person can expect to live without any disability is estimated for Illinois, its counties, and Chicago, using the American Community Survey’s (ACS) definition and data of disability measured by functional disability, the U.S. Census Bureau’s population data, the Illinois Vital Records System’s (IVRS) death data. Demographic-epidemiologic model was used for YDFL’s computation, and GIS mapping for accessing spatial contrast. Results show significant differences between males and females in 94 percent of the counties, in Chicago, and for the state, mostly in favor of females. At the state level, a baby girl may live 70.3  years of her 81.6  expected years of life without disability; whereas a baby boy may live 67.0  years without disability out of 76.6 expected years of life, a difference of 3.3 years (p<0.001).  At county level, these differences vary from 8.1 years (p<0.001) to 0.8 years. Mapping of YDFL as percentage of remaining years of life at birth and at age 65, categorized by  quartiles, shows significant contrast between northern and southern parts of Illinois, with most part of the north falling in the first quartile and the south laying in the last quartile. Public policy, health planning, and heath intervention agencies may find these findings important in closing health disparities gaps.