1. Progress of Task Force on Health Expectancies (TF-HE) Jean-Marie Robine Carol Jagger Joint meeting of the Networks of CA and WPL July 03 2007

2. Historical development of TF-HE • 1st meeting 25 January 2005 • 2nd meeting 8 June 2006 • 3rd meeting 12 December 2006 • Election of lead (JM Robine) and deputy (C Jagger) • Secretariat provided by EHEMU project to June 2007 and EHLEIS project from July 2007 • 4th meeting 4 June 2007 Task Force on Health Expectancies

3. Mandate of TF-HE • Within the Public Health Programme to assure the quality of the whole process of Healthy Life Years (HLY) • HLY is one of a set of Structural Indicators developed in 2005 to provide the objective assessment of progress made towards the Lisbon Strategy. HLY (a disability-free life expectancy) • measures the number of remaining years that a person of a certain age should live without disability • introduces the concept of quality of life • in order to increase HLY and reduce gaps between population groups Task Force on Health Expectancies

4. SANCO drives development and uses EU Public Health Programme TF-HE assures quality of the whole Eurostat collects required data and annually computes Healthy Life Years Structural Indicator - HLY- Commission Services use in policy Countries use it nationally Task Force on Health Expectancies

5. Operationalisation of the mandate Quality is assured by defining and disseminating good practice including: • Data acquisition • Calculation of HLY • Understanding of its meaning including limitations • Use by Commission Services and Countries • Anticipating short and long term developments to improve • quality (objective v subjective measures: HES v HIS) • relevance (decomposition by population subgroups or cause) • Coordinating current activities, early development (HLY by SES, new survey) and research (decomposition by cause, objective measures from HES, …) Task Force on Health Expectancies

6. Current status Provisional estimates of HLY from SILC 2005 for the 25 MS were presented by EHEMU and Eurostat at the 4th TF-HE (June 2007). However before releasing the official estimates there are a number of remaining tasks: • Fixing and documenting the calculation algorithm with Eurostat • Checking the interpretation with the MS through the country reports • Organising public release with SANCO Task Force on Health Expectancies

7. Three year strategic plan for the HLY The TF-HE must ensure that the HLY will move forward towards meeting the Grade A criteria for Structural Indicators and to prepare for the next cycle of summary measures of population health (SMPH). To this end a three year Strategic Plan is under development covering: • Improving current HLY estimates • Improving international comparability • Planning for permanent scientific support for HLY • Promoting research on SMPH Task Force on Health Expectancies

8. Three year strategic plan for the HLY To be presented • to SANCO and Eurostat by autumn 2007 • to the TF-HE 3 December 2007 for agreement • to the following meeting of the NCA/NWPL Task Force on Health Expectancies

9. SANCO drives development and uses EU Public Health Programme TF-HE assures quality of the whole Eurostat collects required data and annually computes Healthy Life Years Structural Indicator - HLY- DG Research funds projects on SMPH Countries use it nationally Task Force on Health Expectancies

10. Main resources of TF-HE • TF members (one member per country, SANCO, Eurostat) • European Health Expectancy Monitoring Unit (EHEMU) June 2004 - June 2007 • European Health and Life Expectancy Information System (EHLEIS) July 2007 - June 2010 Task Force on Health Expectancies

11. EHEMU (2004-2007) EHEMU developed a comprehensive website(www.ehemu.eu) with: • The EHEMU Information System (online calculations of health expectancies and HLY for the 25 MS • Four page country reports documenting individual MS health and life expectancies over time and for different health dimensions (perceived health, chronic morbidity and activity limitation) as well as a profile of the EU as a whole • Several scientific reports on health expectancy in Europe • Training material including a step-by-step calculation guide with accompanying software, a glossary of key definitions and an Interpreting Guide aimed at non-technical audiences • Bibliographic tools Task Force on Health Expectancies

12. EHLEIS (2007-2010) The European Health and Life Expectancy Information System (EHLEIS) will • assume responsibility for upkeep of the website and Information System (www.ehemu.eu) • produce future issues of the country reports for each of the MS • replace EHEMU in providing scientific resources to the TF-HE • provide new insights into gender gaps in HE and trade-offs between health dimensions through scientific reports • organise a training workshop in HE and a European Health Expectancy conference Task Force on Health Expectancies