The transition in health in a population aged 65 years and over in Europe

Abstract

Analysis of changes in the health of older people is an important issue for social policy and health protection. In the paper, we present changes in morbidity for different cohorts (aged 65+) for selected 31 European countries. Life expectancy and health-adjusted life expectancy are used in order to study the stages of health transition: the relative compression, relative expansion, and relative dynamic equilibrium. Using an approach called a new general theory of population ageing [Michel, J., and J. Robine. 2004. “A “New” General Theory of Population Ageing.” Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance—Issues and Practice 29 (4):667–78.], we observe that for some cohorts of elderly the number of years lived with disability rised again in 2016 compared to 1990.