Introduction: Little is known about the relationship between good self-reported health and disability in connection with life- expectancy.

Aims and methods: 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.

Results: 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 cannot 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.

Conclusions: 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.