ALESSANDRO FERALDI

Dottore di ricerca

ciclo: XXXIV



Titolo della tesi: Gender Gap in Health and Survival: Age-Cause Contributions and Healthy Life Expectancy

The focus of my thesis is on the gender gap in health and survival. The first aim of my dissertation is to shed light on the evolution of the gender gap in survival in recent decades by examining patterns of contributions of ages and causes of death to the gender gap in life expectancy. The analyses cover a wide range of causes of death and include long time periods for several European and non-European countries. Advanced statistical techniques have been applied to evaluate changes in contributions of ages and causes of death to the gender gap in life expectancy over time (e.g. Functional Data Analysis) by using aggregated-level data (e.g. Human Mortality Database, Human Causes-of-Death Database, WHO Causes-of-Death Database). The second aim of my dissertation is to investigate gender differences in the associations between health expectancy and potential risk factors, focusing on healthy life expectancy as life expectancy free from specific diseases (not commonly studied), rather than disability-free life expectancy. In particular, I analyse the sex difference in the extent of the reduction of cancer-free life expectancy due to the (co-) occurrence of risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity. Additionally, I investigate gender disparities in the association between depression-free life expectancy and two distinctive marital statuses: married and widowed. Multistate life table approach (by using Interpolated Markov Chain software and R function ELECT) is applied to measure healthy and unhealthy life expectancy in recent cohorts of older Americans of the Health and Retirement Study, over a large follow-up. First, our findings reveal that with mortality delay, the most relevant age contributors to the gender gap in mortality, with regards to both premature mortality and old-age mortality (e.g., due to cancer, cardiovascular diseases and external causes), indeed shifted towards older ages, but the shift was not rigid. On the contrary, it could involve, depending on the cause of death and the country, either a compression of the most relevant age-contributors or a dispersion. In addition, this dissertation shows the benefits of the demographic application of Functional Data Analysis approach (FDA), revealing that the age- and cause-specific contributions to the GGLE act almost entirely on only two dimensions: level (greater/smaller contribution) and age pattern (location of the curves across ages). The location of the cause-specific mortality differences across the age spectrum had a greater impact on the gender gap in life expectancy than the magnitude of the cause-specific differences. Findings also revealed that, while the presence of individual and multiple behavioral risk factor, such as smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, attenuates cancer-free life expectancy disadvantage of men compare to women, social factors such as being widowed (rather than being married) amplifies depression-free life expectancy disadvantage of men compared to women. Finally, this dissertation offers insights into the complex factors that contribute to the gender gap in life and health expectancy and highlights the need for continued efforts to improve health outcomes for both men and women across all ages and causes of death. Manuscripts included in this dissertation: Study I Feraldi, A., and Zarulli, V. (2022). Patterns in age and cause of death contribution to the sex gap in life expectancy: a comparison among ten countries. Genus, 78(1), 1-22. Study II Feraldi, A., Zarulli, V., Mazzuco, S., and Giudici, C. (2023). Functional Data Analysis Approach in Population Studies: An Application to the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy (Under review in Quality & Quantity - Methods for modelling and understanding population changes). Study III Feraldi, A., Giudici, C., and Brouard N. (2023). Gender Gap in Cancer-Free Life Expectancy: The Association with Smoking, Obesity and Physical Inactivity (Results will be partly presented at the Population Association of America 2023 Annual Conference). Study IV Feraldi, A., Giudici, C., and Brouard N. (2023). Estimating Gender Gap in Depression-Free Life Expectancy among 50 and older American widowed: An application using Interpolated Markov Chain Approach (Under review in Statistical Methods & Applications).

Produzione scientifica

11573/1701443 - 2024 - Estimating the Sex Gap in Depression-Free Life Expectancy among Widowed Americans Aged 50 and Older: An Application Using the Interpolated Markov Chain Approach
Feraldi, Alessandro; Giudici, Cristina; Brouard, Nicolas - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: JOURNAL OF AGING AND HEALTH (Sage Periodicals Incorporated:2455 Teller Road:Thousand Oaks, CA 91320:(805)499-0721, EMAIL: order@sagepub.com, INTERNET: http://www.sagepub.com, Fax: (805)499-0871) pp. - - issn: 0898-2643 - wos: WOS:001169351600001 (0) - scopus: (0)

11573/1694031 - 2023 - Evaluation of statistical treatment of left-censored contamination data: example on Deoxynivalenol occurrence in pasta and pasta substitute products
Feraldi, Alessandro; De Santis, Barbara; Finocchietti, Marco; Debegnach, Francesca; Mandile, Antonio; Alfò, Marco - 04f Poster
congresso: Mycotoxin Workshop (Celle)
libro: Mycotoxin workshop - ()

11573/1694032 - 2023 - Evaluation of Statistical Treatment of Left-Censored Contamination Data: Example Involving Deoxynivalenol Occurrence in Pasta and Pasta Substitute Products
Feraldi, Alessandro; De Santis, Barbara; Finocchietti, Marco; Debegnach, Francesca; Mandile, Antonio; Alfò, Marco - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: TOXINS (Basel : Molecular Diversity Preservation International MDPI) pp. - - issn: 2072-6651 - wos: WOS:001077777400001 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85172278437 (0)

11573/1691188 - 2023 - Sex Gap in Cancer-Free Life Expectancy: The Association with Smoking, Obesity and Physical Inactivity
Feraldi, Alessandro; Giudici, Cristina; Brouard, Nicolas - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
libro: SIS 2023 Book of the short papers - (9788891935618)

11573/1688483 - 2023 - Functional data analysis approach in population studies: an application to the gender gap in life expectancy
Feraldi, Alessandro; Zarulli, Virginia; Mazzuco, Stefano; Giudici, Cristina - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: QUALITY AND QUANTITY (Dordrecht : Kluwer) pp. - - issn: 1573-7845 - wos: (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85168590941 (0)

11573/1667292 - 2022 - Patterns in age and cause of death contribution to the sex gap in life expectancy: a comparison among ten countries
Feraldi, A.; Zarulli, V. - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: GENUS (-Roma: Università degli studi "La Sapienza". Dipartimento di scienze demografiche. -ESIA Books and Journals:Via Palestro 30, I 00185 Rome Italy:011 39 06 4441220, 011 39 6 4441221, EMAIL: esia@esia.it, Fax: 011 39 06 4747743) pp. - - issn: 0016-6987 - wos: WOS:000836636400001 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85135205324 (0)

11573/1667303 - 2022 - Depression‑free life expectancy among 50 and older Americans by gender, race/ethnicity and education: the effect of marital disruption
Feraldi, Alessandro; Giudici, Cristina; Brouard, Nicolas - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
congresso: 51th Annual Meeting of Italian Nation Institute of Statistics (Società Italiana di Statistica - SIS) (Caserta, Italy)
libro: SIS 2022 | Book of Short Papers - (9788891932310)

11573/1667290 - 2022 - Frailty Prevalence, Incidence, and Association with Incident Disability in the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging
Galluzzo, Lucia; Noale, Marianna; Maggi, Stefania; Feraldi, Alessandro; Baldereschi, Marzia; Di Carlo, Antonio; Onder, Graziano - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: GERONTOLOGY (Basel : S. Karger, 1998-) pp. - - issn: 1423-0003 - wos: WOS:000885964600001 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85135761617 (1)

11573/1564113 - 2021 - Analysing contributions of ages and causes of death to gender gap in life expectancy using functional data analysis
Feraldi, Alessandro; Zarulli, Virginia; Mazzuco, Stefano; Giudici, Cristina - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
congresso: 50th Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society (Pisa)
libro: Book of short papers SIS 2021 - (9788891927361)

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