Policy relevance and the further development of the health expectancy indicator
bookPart
The conflict between living longer on the one hand and improving the quality of life on the other, is the central policy problem that our society will have to face in the coming years. It is exactly this contrast that the health expectancy indicator tries to make manageable for policy makers. The policy relevance of the health expectancy indicator as an all-embracing measure for health is already being demonstrated by the answers that the indicator is able to give in the debate on compression or expansion of morbidity. There is growing evidence that expansion of morbidity is the natural consequence of increasing life expectancies. This confronts society with two questions. How can the burden of disease be diminished? How can society deal with unavoidable consequences of this development? Here the health expectancy indicator may play a further relevant role in the development of concrete policies when the gap is bridged between the indicator as an overall measure of health and the underlying 'what' and 'why' questions. This paper deals with the question of how this can be achieved, with issues like the need for an integral approach of health policies, the relation between health and society, the triplet causes-diseases-consequences, the need for different specifications for different actors, and some suggestions for the further development of the health expectancy indicator.
Topics
TNO Identifier
531810
ISBN
2-7420-0009-7
Publisher
John Libbey Eurotext
Source title
Calculation of health expectancies: harmonization, consensus achieved and future perspectives
Editor(s)
Robine, J.M.
Mathers, C.D.
Bone, M.R.
Romieu, I.
Mathers, C.D.
Bone, M.R.
Romieu, I.
Collation
389 p.
Place of publication
Montrouge
Pages
23-31
Files
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