With the increase in life expectancy across the developed world (including Australia) being driven mainly by people living longer into old age, an important question is raised: are people spending these extra years of life in poor health? The issue of 'healthy life expectancy' stresses that increases in life expectancy alone are not important. What is important is that people live longer lives in better health.
A common measure used to summarise this is 'health adjusted life expectancy' (HALE). This is an estimate of the number of healthy years (free from disability or disease) that a person born in a particular year can expect to live based on current trends in deaths and disease patterns. The average number of years spent in unhealthy states is subtracted from the overall life expectancy, taking into account the relative severity of such states.
The estimated HALE for Australia in 2003 was 70.6 years for males and 75.2 years for females. This means that males born in 2003 could expect to lose an average of 7.7 years of their life to disability, while females could expect to lose 8.0 years. In 1996, the average years of healthy life lost due to disability was 6.9 years for males and 7.7 years for females (AIHW 2007 cat no. PHE 82). Thus, although life expectancy increased between 1996 and 2003 by 3.6% for males and 2.3% for females, the average years of life spent in an unhealthy state also increased by 11.6% for males and 3.9% for females. If these trends continue, it may be the case that increases in life expectancy will be offset by an increasing burden of disease and disability.
For an international view of healthy life expectancy, visit the World Health Organization healthy life expectancy site.