Does greater longevity come with lower life disparity in India? A comparative study between Kerala and Delhi

Abstract

Background: life expectancy and life disparity are two important measures for determining society’s health condition. Over last decades, Indian life expectancy has increased, reaching 69.4 years in 2018, with highest life expectancies being registered in Kerala and Delhi, with 75.3 years for both-sexes. Delhi has overtaken Kerala and is now top-ranking state in life expectancy. However, whether Delhi also has a lower disparity than Kerala is still unknown.

Objectives: to assess age-at death distributions, trends in life expectancy and life disparity for Delhi and Kerala from 2010-2018; to assess patterns of life disparity and their relation to rising longevity; to show that, despite having similar life expectancies, life disparity varies between Delhi and Kerala.

Methods: abridged-life table from Sample Registration System from 2010-18 for Kerala and Delhi. Decomposition approach is performed to calculate age-specific contribution to changes in life expectancy and life disparity for each population.

Results: Kerala showed inverse relationship between life expectancy and life disparity but not Delhi. Despite having a better Delhi’s life expectancy than Kerala during the study period, Delhi’s life disparity is still higher than Kerala’s. Disparities in life expectancy and life disparity between the two groups are closely related to their differences in age-specific mortality.

Conclusions: given the ongoing demographic transition in India and spatial variations in it, this study is a welcome contribution to our understanding of India’s mortality decline. Our study has revealed that the life disparity in Delhi is higher than that in Kerala. This is because infant mortality in Delhi is higher than in Kerala whereas old age mortality is higher in Kerala than in Delhi.

Contribution: beneficial in allocating healthcare resources to minimize both infants and old deaths and to attain equality in longevity and health.

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ORCID for Saddaf Naaz Akhtar: orcid.org/0000-0002-0346-5220

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