Overview
Healthspan is a family of measures, not one universal score. The series moves from HALE, HLY, and Dis-FLE definitions through weighting, hospital survival, selection, and subgroup associations; a 2024 arXiv preprint on 2010–2013 French hospital data shows why each number’s state, estimand, population, and evidence limits must stay attached.
Learning outcomes
- “Healthy years” differ when a measure weights health loss, records activity limitation, or counts specified severe clinical events.
- HALE combines life-table survival with weighted functional-health loss; it is not a tally of diagnosis-free years.
- HLY reflects reported long-term activity limitation, while Dis-FLE follows severe hospital-recorded events in a selected risk set.
- Agreement in age or sex patterns does not make measures interchangeable or turn associations into personal forecasts or causal effects.
Keywords
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PlansFAQ
Why are HALE, HLY, and Dis-FLE not interchangeable?
They are not interchangeable because they define health differently and use different evidence, estimands, and populations.
What does HALE actually measure?
HALE estimates average remaining years in weighted “full health” at an age by combining life-table survival with functional-health loss.
What does Dis-FLE count as disease-free?
Dis-FLE counts time without a new event from specified severe clinical conditions observed in hospital trajectories; it does not mean freedom from every illness or limitation.
Can a healthspan number predict one person’s future?
No. These are population or selected-cohort summaries; associations and conditional predictions do not establish an individual forecast or intervention effect.