Depression-free life expectancy in elderly populations in Ceará, northeast and Brasil

Abstract

This paper investigated depression-free life expectancy in the elderly population of Ceará, the Northeast and Brazil. We used data from the 2019 National Health Survey (PNS) and the projections of the Mortality Tables provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2018. Sullivan's method was used to estimate depression-free life expectancy at age 60 years. The results show that, among the elderly in the analyzed regions, women are at a disadvantage in the number of years they will live with depression compared to men. Which suggests that women live longer with depression compared to men. Among the populations analyzed, it was also found that the one in the Northeast showed the smallest difference in the prevalence of depression in the elderly between the sexes, with 11.6% in women and 3.7% in men. In general, the Northeast has the lowest prevalence of depression among the elderly, when compared to the other two regions.