Direct Healthy Life Expectancy Estimates from Life Tables with a Sullivan Extension: The Case of Brazil 2003

Abstract

The Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) in Brazil 2003 was estimated by Romero et al (2005) by using the Sullivan method and data from the World Health Survey carried out in Brazil in 2003. Here we use a Direct method to estimate the Healthy Life Years Lost (HLYL) and then the HLE. This is done after the analytic derivation of a more general model of survival-mortality and the estimation of a parameter bx related to the HLYL is followed by the formulation of a computer program providing results similar to those of the World Health Organization for the Healthy Life Expectancy (HALE) and the corresponding HLYL estimates. This program is an extension of classical life table including more columns to estimate the cumulative mortality, the average mortality, the person life years lost, and finally the HLYL parameter bx. Even more, a further extension of the Excel program based on the Sullivan method provides estimates of the Healthy Life Expectancy at every year of the lifespan.