little is known about the relationship between good self - reported health and disability in connection with life- expectancy .
to show empirical evidence of the significant statistical association between self - reported health status and disability using spanish survey data and to discuss implications for measures of life expectancy .
we model jointly absence of disability and self - reported good - health status correcting for socio - demographic characteristics such as age , gender and years of education .
more than 50% of the correlation existing between self - reported health status and disability can not be explained .
the proportion of years lived in disability or in good health with respect to the remaining life expectancy increases with age , but longevity is more related to disability than to self - reported bad - health .
women report to have good health less frequently than men , while men report disability more frequently .
joint factors other than basic socio - demographic indicators induce a significant association between a disability - free status and good self - reported health .
life - expectancy in good self - reported health is longer than life - expectancy in a disability - free condition .
 introductionlittle is known about the relationship between good self - reported health and disability in connection with life- expectancy.aims and methodsto show empirical evidence of the significant statistical association between self - reported health status and disability using spanish survey data and to discuss implications for measures of life expectancy.resultswe model jointly absence of disability and self - reported good - health status correcting for socio - demographic characteristics such as age , gender and years of education . more than 50% of the correlation existing between self - reported health status and disability can not be explained . 
 the proportion of years lived in disability or in good health with respect to the remaining life expectancy increases with age , but longevity is more related to disability than to self - reported bad - health . women report to have good health less frequently than men , while men report disability more frequently . 
 the influence of the number of years of education is similar for both concepts.conclusionsjoint factors other than basic socio - demographic indicators induce a significant association between a disability - free status and good self - reported health . 
 life - expectancy in good self - reported health is longer than life - expectancy in a disability - free condition . 