Trends in remaining life expectancy at retirement age (65 years) by educational level in Norway 1961-2009 :

Background: Over the last half a century education based inequalities in life expectancy have increased in younger populations, but our knowledge of long-term trends in old-age life expectancy differentials is sparse. We investigated the trends in remaining life expectancy at age 65 (e65) according to education in Norway for the period 1961-2009. Methods: This was a register-based population study including all Norwegian residents aged 65 years and older. Individual-level data were provided by the Central Population Registry and the National Educational Database. We classified education into higher and lower education and constructed one life table for each calendar year, sex, and educational group. We tested for trends using weighted least square regression models. Results: e65 increased over the observation period for all educational groups, but the difference in e65 increased by 0.060 life years per calendar year in men and 0.025 life years per calendar year in women (P