New Longevity Statistic - Healthy Working Life Expectancy at age 50

There are probably about 6 people in the world who get excited about longevity indicators; I happen to be one of them. I think longevity indicators are fascinating. The problem of estimating life expectancy and determining the quality of the remaining years of life is critical for setting policy in public health and other fields. We just don't have a perfect way to do it yet. We have HALEs, Life Expectancy, DALYs and Life Span. Now, thanks to European researchers we have "Healthy Working Life Expectancy at age 50."

What is a Healthy Working Life Expectancy at Age 50?

The name says it all, this is a measure of the number of years, starting at age 50, that the average person in a country can be expected to work. This is an attempt to measure the absence of disease and disability in a population, as well as assist economists in making projections about the impact of aging on the workforce. Abbreviated HWLE, researchers examined data from surveys of 60,000 households throughout Western Europe and measured the number of years between ages 50 and 70 spent in good health and at work. They found that men tend to work for more years (average 7.5) than women (average 4.8), which is about 1/3 of the number of years they live in good health during this time.

In other words, in Europe, people seem to retire while still healthy. Personally, I think that is wonderful but the researchers suggest that policies need to change to extend the number of healthy years spent at work (doesn't it seem like we should be creating policies for people to spend more healthy years with their families?). Maybe this new indicator isn't so exciting after all.

_Source:

Lievre A, Jusot F, Barnay T, Sermet C, Brouard N, Robine JM, Brieu MA, Forette F. Healthy working life expectancies at age 50 in europe: a new indicator. J Nutr Health Aging 2007 Nov-Dec;11(6):508-14.