Labor force participation and secondary education of gender inequality index (GII) associated with healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth

BACKGROUND: What is the factor that affects healthy life expectancy? Healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth may be influenced by components of the gender inequality index (GII). Notably, this claim is not tested on the between components of the GII, such as population at least secondary education (PLSE) with ages 25 and older, labor force participation rate (LFPR) with ages 15 and older, and the HLE in the world’s countries. Thus, this study estimates the associations between the PLSE, LFPR of components of the GII and the HLE. METHODS: The data for the analysis of HLE in 148 countries were obtained from the World Health Organization. Information regarding the GII indicators for this study was obtained from the United Nations database. Associations between these factors and HLE were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients and regression models. RESULTS: Although significant negative correlations were found between HLE and the LFPR, positive correlations were found between HLE and PLSE. Finally, the HLE predictors were used to form a model of the components of the GII, with higher PLSE as secondary education and lower LFPR as labor force (R(2) = 0.552, P <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Gender inequality of the attainment secondary education and labor force participation seems to have an important latent effect on healthy life expectancy at birth. Therefore, in populations with high HLE, the gender inequalities in HLE are smaller because of a combination of a larger secondary education advantage and a smaller labor force disadvantage in male-females.