From lifespan to healthspan The role of nutrition in healthy ageing

Across the globe, there has been a marked increase in longevity, but significant inequalities remain. These are exacerbated by inadequate access to proper nutrition and health care services and to reliable information to make the decisions related to nutrition and health care. Many in economically developing as well as developed societies are...

Silicon for prevention, cure and care: A technology toolbox of wearables at the dawn of a new health system

Our increasing life expectancy also implies that many of us will be suffering from one or more chronic illnesses during a larger part of our lives. Medical-grade wearables have the grand promise and the largely untapped potential to become a cornerstone technology in the care cycle. For chronic patients, tools are needed that improve the risk...

From early retirement to working beyond retirement

Many developed countries are confronted with ageing populations, due to the increase in life expectancy and long-term decline in fertility rates. As a consequence, the ratio of the retired elderly to the active working population increases. This puts a pressure on the social security system, and causes tension in the solidarity between...

Prevalence, Neonatal Characteristics, and First-Year Mortality of Down Syndrome: A National Study

Objective: To determine the prevalence, neonatal characteristics, and first-year mortality in Down syndrome (DS) among children in the Netherlands. Study design: The number of DS births registered by the Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit (DPSU) in 2003 was compared with total live births (reference population) and perinatal registrations....

Modeling predicted that tobacco control policies targeted at lower educated will reduce the differences in life expectancy

Background and Objective: To estimate the effects of reducing the prevalence of smoking in lower educated groups on educational differences in life expectancy. Methods: A dynamic Markov-type multistate transition model estimated the effects on life expectancy of two scenarios. A "maximum scenario" where educational differences in prevalence of...

Life expectancy without chronic morbidity: Trends in gender and socioeconomic disparities

Objective. Life expectancy without chronic morbidity, or morbidity-free life expectancy (MFLE), was calculated to measure changes in population health status between 1989 and 2000 on the basis of gender and socioeconomic status. Methods. Sullivan's method was used to calculate morbidity-free life expectancy. Prevalence rates for chronic...

Trends in disability-free life expectancy

Purpose: To assess trends in Disability-Free Life Expectancy, in life expectancy with disabilities according to levels of severity and in Disability-Adjusted Life Expectancy in the Netherlands between 1989 and 2000. Method: The disability-free life expectancy, a composite population health status measure, was calculated with data on long-term...

Association between mortality and indicators of traffic-related air pollution in the Netherlands: A cohort study

Background: Long-term exposure to particulate matter air pollution has been associated with increased cardiopulmonary mortality in the USA. We aimed to assess the relation between traffic-related air pollution and mortality in participants of the Netherlands Cohort study on Diet and Cancer (NLCS), an ongoing study. Methods: We investigated a...

Additional risk factors influence excess mortality in heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia

Life expectancy of patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia is decreased. Some untreated patients reach a normal life span and, therefore, additional risk factors and the type of mutation in the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor gene are likely to influence the clinical outcome. We determined all cause mortality in kindreds with the...

Health expectancy and the problem of substitute morbidity

During the past century, the developed world has not only witnessed a dramatic increase in life expectancy (ageing), but also a concomitant rise in chronic disease and disability. Consequently, the tension between 'living longer' on the one hand and health-related 'quality of life' on the other has become an increasingly important health policy...

Dementia-free life expectancy (demFLE) in the Netherlands

To gain an insight into the burden of dementia in an aging society, life expectancy with dementia and its counterpart dementia-free life expectancy (DemFLE) in The Netherlands are presented. Sullivan's method was used to calculate DemFLE. For elderly living either independently or in homes for the elderly prevalence figures on dementia were...

Occupational handicap-free life expectancy in Bulgaria 1976-1992 based on the data of the medical expert commissions

This article presents health expectancy calculations from Bulgaria for 1976-1992. The calculations are based on mortality statistics and data from a national information system from the Expert Medical Commissions on Working Capacity about loss of working capacity. Following internationally accepted terminology, the most appropriate term for the...

Policy relevance of the health expectancy indicator; an inventory in European Union countries

Due to epidemiological transitions in population health both an increase in life expectancy and in chronic morbidity and disability have been observed in many countries. Consequently the tension between 'living longer' on the one hand and the 'quality of life' on the other has become a central health policy problem. The introduction of the...

Study design for the identification of loci affecting human longevity

The genetic component of human longevity is estimated at 30%. Which genes are involved in determining human longevity, however, is largely unknown. Genes that may affect human survival are susceptibility loci for major age related pathologies. Many studies are being performed to identify such loci for cardiovascular disease, dementia and...

Health expectancy in the Netherlands 1983-1990

Health expectancy is a relatively new indicator for population health, taking account of both mortality and morbidity and/or disability. This integral measure, introduced by Sullivan in the 1970s, is based on the simple idea of subtracting the number of years that may be expected to be spent in poor health from life expectancy. This article...

Setting priorities in prevention

In the last few years prevention has again become the focus of attention because of various international developments such as the WHO strategy for Health for All by the year 2000. When resources are scarce, it is all the more important to set priorities. This applies to prevention as well as to curative care. In this paper, we describe a method...

Gezonde levensverwachting, een eigentijdse maat voor de volksgezondheid [Healthy life expectancy, a contemporary indicator for public health]