ICIDH IN THE CALCULATION OF HEALTH EXPECTANCY

In this paper the use of the ICIDH in the field of calculating health expectancies is examined. The health indicator 'health expectancy' is an adaptation of the indicator 'life expectancy'; health expectancies reflect the expected number of years lived in good health in a populat ion. To date, health expectancies have been calculated for many countr ies. However, many different concepts of health have been used. The th eoretical framework of the ICIDH has been proposed to harmonize the ca lculations of health expectancy. In this paper we explore this idea. T o examine the possibility to use the ICIDH framework, we calculated he alth expectancies for The Netherlands, trying to follow the ICIDH. Sub sequently, we reviewed the health expectancies calculated for other co untries, and tried to fit those into the ICIDH framework. Much of the work done could be fitted into this framework. An important exception, however, are those health expectancies that try to capture a concept of health that is more compassing than impairments, disabilities and h andicaps. Although it is possible to classify different health expecta ncies according to the ICIDH, this does not make health expectancies w ithin a certain class comparable. Both the calculations carried out fo r The Netherlands, and the comparison of instruments used internationa lly, show that the instruments used to measure, for example, disabilit ies, yield results which are not comparable. Continuing efforts to sta ndardize measurement instruments are needed.