Diagnosis based life expectancy and its determinants among Estonian native and immigrant population

Kati Karelson, Estonian Interuniversity Population Research Centre and National Institute for Health Development
Luule Sakkeus, Tallinn University

Estonia, with a total population of slightly more than 1.3 million in 2011, offers an interesting opportunity to investigate the health transition and its determinants. This country has been among the forerunners of the demographic transition (Coale et al. 1979; Katus 1994). This implies that the so-called epidemiological transition follows the trends of that of Northern and Western Europe (Omran 1971; Caselli 1995). Significant changes in life expectancy (LE) and the nature of the causes of death that have occurred in the last decade lead us to focus on two main health challenges in the Estonian population: until recently, an ever-widening gender gap in LE, comprising one of the highest proportions of male excess mortality in Europe, and a persistent gap in LE between the immigrant and native populations. In this study we focus on remaining life expectancy related to specific causes of death. Two subpopulations – immigrants and natives – will be analysed separately. The interest is to find out whether population groups that live in the same society and have similar socio-economic backgrounds will experience different remaining life expectancies from the time point when chronic diseases were diagnosed. The analysis is retrospective and bases on the event-history approach. We will focus on two big groups of diseases, those of circulatory system and cancer. In addition, the third main group of causes of death of our interest is external causes. We will use three datasets for this analysis: Estonian Health Interview Survey 1996 (Est HIS 1996), Estonian Health Interview Survey 2006 (Est HIS 2006) and death certificates. Survey data and death information will be linked in the Causes of Death Registry. Both surveys involved partly life-course approach. Therefore, information about chronic conditions are available from the retrospective point of view. Data analysis is presently under way.