As an indicator of population health, helath expectancy allows us to address the important question of whether or not we are exchanging longer life for poorer health - extending the quantity of life at the expense of quality. This book explains how to define and measure health and morbidity and how to combine these measurements with mortality to produce comparable health expectancies in order to address this key question. Sections include:

• the concepts behind health expectancy and how they have evolved,
• methods of calculating health expectancies,
• comparisons of the health of the world's countries at different stages of demographic transition and
• the relevance of health expectancies to health policy.

Determining Health Expectancies is built on ten years of work of REVES (Reseau Esperance de Vie en Sante/ Network on Health Expectancy). Researchers, clinicians, demographers and health planners will find it a well referenced coherent text for developing and evaluating methods of calculation and furthering the use of health expectancy as a tool of health planning.