Cause-excluded health adjusted life expectancy: a new indicator in measuring the burden of diseases

Abstract

Based on the integration of concept and methods of cause-eliminated life expectancy (CELE), health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) and disability-adjusted life year (DALY), a new index named cause-excluded health adjusted life expectancy (CEHALE) was developed in this study to evaluate the health impact(both fetal and non-fetal) of single disease. In order to include the impact of both premature death and health problems among those who are alive, the concept of suppositional death was introduced to calculate CEHALE. Cause-excluded health adjusted life expectancy developed in this study, should be not only easy to understand in concept, but also has theoretical support and be not affected by age structure, and be more suitable to use in comparison among different diseases and different population. Moreover, the new index is easy to calculate. So, CEHALE should be an ideal index to evaluate the impact of disease to population health.