Measuring populaton health in Moldova

Measuring populaton health in Moldova: health expectancies

 Cristna Avram,  Olga Gagauz Charles University, Faculty of Science, Department of Demography and Geodemography, Center for Demographic Research, Natonal Insttute for Economic Research, Academy of Sciences of Moldova

Health measures are decisive for the development and implementaton of populaton health policies. Monitoring health indicators can lead to improvements in health and decrease in the inequalites among subpopulatons. The life expectancy at birth for the Moldovan populaton did not increase considerably during the last decades, due to the social and economic crisis which led to high mortality and poor health. In Moldova, no aggregated health indicators are utlized for health monitoring. Therefore, the authors calculated health indicators to assess the populaton health and argue their importance. Mortality and subjectve data on self-per- ceived health and self-rated morbidity from the Household Budget Survey was used for constructng period morbidity-mortality tables. Thus, the authors applied Sullivan’s method to calculate the life expectancy in very good/good/fair health and the life expec- tancy without chronic morbidity for the period 2006–2015. The life expectancies in very good/good/fair health showed a compres- sion of morbidity in the older ages for both sexes, and for rural and urban types of residence. The life expectancies without chronic morbidity for males and for urban dwellers demonstrated an expansion of morbidity. Although the life expectancy is slowly increas- ing, the trends in populaton health are contradictory, depending on the applied measures. The health expectancy indicators, based on self-perceived health, depict the actual situaton in the populaton health. These indicators are becoming more essental with the ageing process and can be used for the tailoring of social and health policies and services to the real needs of the populaton.