Interprete patterns and trends

How to interpret 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.