Healthy Life Expectancy and the Correlates of Self-rated Health for the Elderly in Rajshahi District of Bangladesh

In view of population size, scarcity of resources, existing poverty, insufficient health facilities and the absence of a social security system, ageing is going to be a major problem in Bangladesh. Thus, this paper examines how many years the elderly expect to be in good health, and what are the correlates of self-rated health (SRH). The data used in this study come from 896 elderly from Rajshahi district in Bangladesh and from United Nations projected population figures. Results show that individuals at age 60 expected about 41 percent of their remaining life to be in good health, while individuals at age 80 and above expected only 21 percent of their remaining life to be in good health. Having exercised during the 6 months prior to the survey was the single most important correlate of SRH: odds ratio = 5.49 (4.03-7.47) without any adjustment. While rural-urban differentials, gender inequality and some health decline in old age are inevitable, four factors (exercise behaviour, sufficiency of income, physical limitations, and facing abusive behaviour) are to a certain extent modifiable and therefore provide a potential for improvement in SRH and in healthy life expectancy in Bangladesh.