[Estimates of life expectancy for individuals with chronic spinal diseases in Brazil].

Chronic spinal diseases, including deformities and muscular pain, are significant causes of morbidity among adults and the elderly. The scope of this study is to assess the life expectancy of Brazilians with chronic spinal diseases by sex and age between 2003 and 2008. The Sullivan method was used, combining the mortality/actuarial table with the prevalence of chronic spinal diseases. The mortality/actuarial tables published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) were used and the prevalence of chronic spinal diseases was taken from the Brazilian Household Sample Survey (PNAD) for the years under scrutiny. The main results indicate that a man born in Brazil in 2008 could expect to live for 69.1 years, of which 15% with chronic spinal diseases. However, women born in the same year had a life expectancy of 76.7 years and could expect to live a fifth of their lives with chronic spinal diseases. Over the period under analysis, concurrently with gains in life expectancy, there was an increase in healthy life expectancy, or length of life lived without chronic spinal diseases, both in absolute and relative terms.