Healthy life expectancy: policy context

Although life expectancy (LE) and healthy life expectancy (HLE) have been increasing in Scotland in recent years, both are worse (lower) in Scotland than in the UK as a whole. Indeed, Scotland has one of the lowest levels of LE in Western Europe (see international comparisons). This is due to its relatively high death rates.

The aim of increasing HLE is included as part of one of the five high level purpose targets and as a specific national indicator set out by the Scottish Government in Scotland Performs:

• Government Economic Strategy Target 4: "To match average European (EU15) population growth over the period from 2007 to 2017, supported by increased healthy life expectancy in Scotland over this period."
• National Indicator 21: "Increase healthy life expectancy at birth in the most deprived areas" (defined as the 15% most deprived data zones in Scotland, based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)).

Scottish Government policy on reducing health inequalities includes Equally Well, the 2008 report of the Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities. This set out a series of recommendations addressing the social determinants of health – including education, poverty and employment – and health and wellbeing in the early years. It also called for analysis to support long-term monitoring of inequalities in a number of high level indicators, of which HLE was one. The 2008 Long-term monitoring of health inequalities report and the 2009 update presented HLE data by deprivation decile for three time periods, and concluded that between 1999-2000 and 2005-06, inequalities in HLE appeared stable in both absolute and relative terms.