Determining Health Expectancies

Health expectancies were developed to address the importantquestion of whether or not we are exchanging longer life for poorerhealth – replacing quality by quantity.
Health expectancies extend the concept of life expectancy tomorbidity and disability by providing a means of dividing lifeexpectancy into life spent in various states of good and badhealth. Being independent of the size of populations and of theirage structure, health expectancies thus allow direct comparison ofthe different groups that constitute populations: sexes,socio-professional categories, regions.

This book brings together for the first time, the major works ofREVES* over the past ten years. As well as providing comparisons ofthe health of many of the world’s countries, the book includessections on the concepts behind health expectancies and thedemographic transition, the relevance of health expectancies tohealth policy and the different methods of calculating healthexpectancies.

*REVES is an international organisation of researchers, cliniciansand health planners addressing these issues as well as developingand recommending methods of calculation and furthering the use ofhealth expectancy as a tool for health planning.
* State-of-the-art coverage of this important health indicator
* Heavily cross referenced to give the book structure and coherence