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

2. Task Force on Health Expectancies 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

3. Task Force on Health Expectancies 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

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

5. Task Force on Health Expectancies Operationalisation of the mandate 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, …) Quality is assured by defining and disseminating good practice including:

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

7. Task Force on Health Expectancies Three year strategic plan for the HLY Improving current HLY estimates Improving international comparability Planning for permanent scientific support for HLY Promoting research on SMPH 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:

8. Task Force on Health Expectancies 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

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

10. Task Force on Health Expectancies 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

11. Task Force on Health Expectancies EHEMU (2004-2007) EHEMU developed a comprehensive website (www.ehemu.eu) with:www.ehemu.eu 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

12. Task Force on Health Expectancies 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)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