Decomposing Sex Differences in Hospitalization-Free Years at Age 60 by Age and Cause of Admission to Hospital in Denmark, 1995–2014

Andreas Höhn , MPDIR Rostock and SDU Odense
Anna Oksuzyan, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Rune Lindahl-Jacobsen, Max Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging
Kaare Christensen, University of Southern Denmark and Odense University Hospital
Rosie Seaman, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

The extent to which shrinking sex differences in mortality may reflect shrinking sex differences in hospital admissions is not yet known for Denmark. Using register data for the total population, we estimated the number of hospitalization-free years for men and women aged 60 between 1995 and 2014. We decomposed differences across time and between sexes using a method of continuous change. Between 1995 and 2014, the number of hospitalization-free years rose from 8.6 to 11.4 among men and from 9.4 to 12.6 among women. A decreasing risk of admissions from neoplasms among women aged 60-69 was the main driver of widening sex differentials between 1995 and 2014. Widening sex difference in the number of hospitalization-free years at age 60 point towards increasing sex differences in the postponement of disease towards older ages, and might indicate that women have benefited more from medical progress of the last decades.

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 Presented in Session 80. Flash Session: Innovation in Demographic Methods