Health expectancies and current research

Abstract

In many developed and developing countries, life expectancy has greatly increased over the last two decades. However, this seemingly favourable change raises new questions concerning the quality of the years of life gained, particularly in the elderly. Do the individuals who escape death accumulate disabilities, sequelae of accidents or consequences of chronic diseases? The concept of disability-free life expectancy, and more widely that of health expectancy, has been developed in order to answer this question.