Interprete patterns and trends

Health expectancy indicators have become important instruments for public health. Therefore, how to interpret levels, trends or disparities within and between countries is a crucial issue:

• Why female health expectancies shorter than male?
  
• Do social status matters for health expectancies?
• Can we find regional patterns within countries?
• etc...

In order to properly comment and use these indicators, one should be aware of how it is computed and what are the underlying health measures used: indeed, there are as many health expectancies as health measures and each of them display a specific pattern and correspond to particular situation and needs.

You can find in the box a document to be downloaded which provides example and explanations to better understand and use health expectancies.