Health expectancy indicators: what do they measure?

Abstract Background Health expectancy indicators aim at capturing the quality dimension of total life expectancy.; however, underlying approach, definition health, and information source differ considerably among available. Objective (1) Review main concepts approaches used to estimate health focusing on two widely European indicators: Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE) Healthy Years (HLY); (2) identify differences between results yielded by these indicators. Method Statistical HALE HLY sex ages 50, 60, 70 were tested using pairwise global Student´s t-tests z-scores based standard deviation. Data for 29 countries collected from Monitoring Unit (EHEMU) system World Organization (WHO) Global Burden Disease Study 2016 (GBD 2016). Results The indicator estimates smoother across compared with those indicator, present a narrower gap in morbidity, higher average distribution Europe, less sensitive cross-national variations. Conclusion indicate that morbidity is more compressed both sexes, whereas suggest males but expanded females. These contrasting demonstrate should be interpreted caution.