Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb 14;18(1):256.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5112-7.

Understanding the rapid increase in life expectancy in shanghai, China: a population-based retrospective analysis

Hanyi Chen  1 , Lipeng Hao  1 , Chen Yang  1 , Bei Yan  1 , Qiao Sun  2 , Lianghong Sun  1 , Hua Chen  1 , Yichen Chen  1
Affiliations

Understanding the rapid increase in life expectancy in shanghai, China: a population-based retrospective analysis

Hanyi Chen et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Life expectancy at birth (LE) is a comprehensive measure that accounts for age-specific death rates in a population. Shanghai has ranked first in LE in China mainland for decades. Understanding the reasons behind its sustained gain in LE provides a good reflection of many other cities in China. The aim of this study is intended to explore temporal trend in age- and cause-specific gains in LE in Shanghai and the probable reasons lay behind.

Methods: Joinpoint regression was applied to evaluate temporal trend in LE and the long time span was then divided accordingly. Contributions to change in LE (1973-2015) were decomposed by age and cause at corresponding periods.

Results: LE in Shanghai could be divided into four phases ie., descent (1973-1976), recovery (1976-1998), rapid rise (1998-2004) and slow rise (2004-2015). The growing LE was mainly attributed to reductions in mortality from the elderly populations and chronic diseases such as cerebrovascular disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, and gastrointestinal cancers (stomach, liver and esophageal cancer).

Conclusions: The four-decade sustained gain in LE in Shanghai is due to the reductions in mortality from the elderly and chronic diseases such as cerebrovascular disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, and gastrointestinal cancers. Further growth momentum still comes from the elderly population.

Keywords: Cause of death; Joinpoint regression analysis; Life expectancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Our study did not involve any health-related human participants’ interventions. The surveillance protocol was approved by the ethical committee of Shanghai Pudong New Area Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Verbal informed consent was obtained from each subject. Individual information was anonymized and de-identified prior to analysis. Strict confidentiality of individual data was practiced during the entire study.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trend in life expectancy of Shanghai Pudong, from 1973 to 2015. Life expectancy varied within the range between 72 and 83. Three joinpoints were found ie., year 1976, 1998 and 2004
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Age-specific contributions to life expectancy in different phases. Infant group was separately listed. Each bar indicated net contribution of mortality changes to the total life expectancy in different phases
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Disease group-specific contributions to life expectancy. All disease group codes were from ICD-10. Each bar indicated net contribution of mortality changes to the total life expectancy in different phases
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Cause-specific contributions to life expectancy in different phases. Specific causes were classified according to CCD
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. MHR K, AMA I, Ababneh F. Substantial gender gap reduction in Bangladesh explained by the proximity measure of literacy and life expectancy. J Appl Stat. 2016;
    1. Taylor R, Salkeld G. Health care expenditure and life expectancy in Australia: how well do we perform? Aust N Z J Public Health. 1996;20:233–240. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-842X.1996.tb01022.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. The State Council of the People's Republic of China. Outline of "healthy China 2030". http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2016-10/25/content_5124174.htm. Accessed October 25,2016.
    1. National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China. To increase life expectancy reflects the determination of Chinese government. http://www.nhfpc.gov.cn/xcs/mtbd1/201603/727a8881d09a4c81b3175a2f7a272f7.... Accessed 6 Mar 2016.
    1. Shen J. Changing trends of life expectancy and effect on associated factors in China urban cities [in Chinese] Shanghai: Fudan University; 2013.

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources