Educational and gender disparities in healthy working life expectancy among middle-aged and older adults in South Korea

Objectives Understanding healthy working life expectancy (HWLE) is critical in ageing societies to promote both extended workforce participation and well-being. This study quantifies WLE and HWLE among middle-aged and older adults in Korea, stratified by gender and education. Methods We used data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (waves 1-9, 2006-2022) to estimate WLE and HWLE at age 50 using a discrete-time 5-state Markov model. Participants were categorised based on health and work status. Education was classified into high (≥high school graduate) and low (<high school graduate) groups. Results Of the total 72 534 responses across all waves, 69 272 came from living participants, including 29 649 men (42.8%), 39 623 women (57.2%), 28 705 responses with high education (41.4%) and 40 564 responses with low education (58.6%). Men had longer HWLE than women, despite women having higher total life expectancy. At age 50, men with high education had an HWLE of 15.13 years (95% CI 14.70 to 15.56), while those with low education had 14.25 years (95% CI: 13.60 to 14.90). Women with high education had an HWLE of 9.40 years (95% CI 8.85 to 9.95), whereas those with low education had 9.96 years (95% CI 9.43 to 10.49). Not healthy and working life expectancy (NHWLE) was longer for lower-educated individuals (men 2.26 vs 3.16 years; women 1.27 vs 3.00 years). Conclusions Our findings show that significant disparities in WLE exist according to gender and education level, with the effect of education differing by gender.