Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Nov;31 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S139-S145.
doi: 10.3346/jkms.2016.31.S2.S139.

Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE) in Korea: 2005-2011

Jin Yong Lee  1   2 , Minsu Ock  3 , Seung Hoon Kim  4 , Dun Sol Go  3 , Hyun Joo Kim  5 , Min Woo Jo  6
Affiliations

Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE) in Korea: 2005-2011

Jin Yong Lee et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2016 Nov.

Abstract

Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE) is a summary measurement that estimates the average number of years that a person at a given age can expect to live an equivalent of full health. HALE has not been previously reported at national or regional levels in Korea. This study aimed to measure HALE from 2005 to 2011 in Korea at both the national and regional levels as part of the Korean National Burden Study of 2012. To measure life expectancy (LE) and HALE, we used the life table method and an approach proposed by Sullivan. We used three main data sets to estimate HALE: probability of death, prevalence of disease, and disability weights. Overall, LE and HALE have increased from 2005 to 2011. For example, in 2011, LE and HALE at birth in males were 77.6 and 65.8 years, respectively, and 84.4 and 68.9 in females. It might be assumed that the overall health status of Korean population has been increasing. However, we confirmed that a gap between LE and HALE still exists. Additionally, we found out that there was a significant difference between LE and HALE among various sub-regions. This study is the first to measure HALE using our own database, including disability weight that reflected Korean preferences. Finally, the Korean government and society should make an effort to reduce the gap between LE and HALE and to reduce regional differences.

Keywords: Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy; Health-Related Quality of Life; Life Expectancy; Republic of Korea.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy at age 0 in 2005, 2008, and 2011. KNHANES, Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; LE, life expectancy; HALE, health-adjusted life expectancy.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Differences between life expectancy and health-adjusted life expectancy by age and gender in 2005 and 2011. KNHANES, Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; LE, life expectancy; HALE, health-adjusted life expectancy.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Life expectancy and HALE (A) at ages 0, (B) at ages 40. HALE, health-adjusted life expectancy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. U.S. National Library of Medicine. MeSH subject headings [Internet] [accessed on 10 November 2015]. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/?term=life+expectancy.
    1. Field MJ, Gold MR. Summarizing Population Health: Directions for the Development and Application of Population Metrics. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press; 1998. - PubMed
    1. Murray CJ, Salomon JA, Mathers CD, Lopez AD. Summary Measures of Population Health: Concepts, Ethics, Measurement and Applications. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2002.
    1. Sullivan DF. A single index of mortality and morbidity. HSMHA Health Rep. 1971;86:347–354. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Salomon JA, Wang H, Freeman MK, Vos T, Flaxman AD, Lopez AD, Murray CJ. Healthy life expectancy for 187 countries, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the global burden disease study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380:2144–2162. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources