[Indicators of disability-free life expectancy. Global indicators of the health status of populations].

Disability free life expectancy (DFLE) is an index of mean length of healthy life. It aims at measuring the evolution in the populations state of health. The first calculations were achieved at the end of the 60s and about ten experimental calculations have been made until now, mostly in the United States, Canada, Japan and France. Nowadays this index is very well accepted. Its major qualities are its usefulness for setting health targets and determining the present and future needs. Is DFLE destined for becoming a conjonctural index of health state? The circumstances are undoubtedly propitious. Nevertheless, in order to be used in routine the DFLE index must answer three conditions, which the current approach does not fulfil i.e. the viability of disability measurement for comparisons in time; a registration of period data which is based on the incidence of entrance in disability; a calculation which is adapted to the disability whether it is reversible or not.