The Application of Sullivan’s Method to Healthy Life Expectancy in Poland in 2004

Healthy Life Expectancy is one of fundamental indicators of the population health state estimation. The development of health measures that include both mortality and morbidity conditions of the population has been a focus of study since 1960's. After Sanders published the results of his research on measuring community health levels, HLE estimates were published by the U.S. Department Health, Education, and Welfare for the first time in 1969. Sullivan later published the methods for calculating these estimates. The Sullivan health expectancy reflect the current health of a real population adjusted for mortality levels and independent of age structure. Health expectancy calculated by Sullivan's method is the number of remaining years, at a particular age, which an individual can expect to live in healthy state. In the paper are presented the results of estimation of Healthy Life Expectancy for men and women as well as for urban and rural areas in Poland in 2004