['Public health status and perspectives' 1997. IV. Health status and life expectancy weighted].

The construction of composite measures of population health status meets the need to combine data on mortality and morbidity into one single population health index. Such indices can serve in principle to monitor population health status over time, or as support for the allocation of resources. In the framework of the 'Dutch public health status and forecasts report' for 1997 several calculations, new for the Netherlands, are made along the lines of both the 'health expectancy and the 'disability-adjusted life years' (DALY) concepts.