Estimating Life Expectancy: A Physiatric Perspective

Physiatrists are often asked to consult or even author a life care plan for a specific individual. When engaged in such work, a physiatrist should be prepared to provide an opinion on life expectancy. All opinions expressed in the plan, including predicting life expectancy, should be based on education, training, medical literature, and clinical experience. Familiarity with evidence-based literature regarding an individual’s condition(s) and/or similar conditions is a critical part of the foundation upon which physiatric opinions are based. Data on life expectancy is one type of evidence-based literature with which the physiatrist should become familiar. This article takes a general look at life expectancy determination by physiatrists. Several different approaches to determining longevity exist and these will be reviewed. For reasons discussed in this article, we favor the multiplicative approach to estimate life expectancy. Ideally, a physiatrist should have the opportunity to work with a life expectancy biostatistician when calculating an individual’s longevity.