Healthy Life Expectancy Measurement in Scotland

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Macdonald ◽  
J. Straughn ◽  
M. Sutton

ABSTRACTHealth expectancy (HE) was only recently estimated for the Scottish population (Clark et al., 2004). The estimates were based on Sullivan's method, applying the morbidity prevalence in each age group to the expected number of years lived, to obtain the expected number of years lived in good health. First, we compare these estimates with a wide range of estimates in respect of the rest of the United Kingdom and the (pre-accession) countries of the European Union. We find that Scotland's HE is relatively low, especially for men. Second, we examine data comprising the responses to the 1998 Scottish Health Survey, linked to the hospital records of the respondents from 1981 to 2004, and death records from 1998 to 2004, with HE measurement in mind. Although time spent in hospital does not give a satisfactory measure of HE, the linkage presents a rare opportunity for statistical analysis of survey respondents' mortality and morbidity. We show the results of survival analyses, quantifying the effectiveness of various definitions of ‘unhealthy’ as predictors of future mortality and morbidity. The results suggest that enumerating recent serious hospital episodes might help to predict future patterns of demand for acute services.

2021 ◽  
pp. jech-2020-213791
Author(s):  
João Vasco Santos ◽  
João Viana ◽  
Brecht Devleesschauwer ◽  
Juanita A Haagsma ◽  
Cristina Costa Santos ◽  
...  

BackgroundHealthy life expectancy (HLE) is a population health measure that combines mortality and morbidity, which can be calculated using different methods. In this study, we aimed to assess the correlation, reliability and (dis)agreement between two estimates monitored in the European Union (EU), that is, the European Commission's HLE based on self-perceived health (SPH-HLE) and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's HLE based on disability weight (DW-HLE), by sex, and comparing these results with LE and proportion of life spent in good health (%GH).MethodsWe performed a retrospective study in the EU28 countries, between 2010 and 2017. The HLE methods differ in definition, measurement and valuation of health states. While SPH-HLE relies directly on one question, DW-HLE relies on epidemiological data adjusted for DW. Spearman’s r, intraclass correlation coefficient, information-based measure of disagreement and Bland-Altman plots were used to assess reliability, correlation and disagreement in HLE resulting from both methods and in LE or %GH measured by both institutions.ResultsCorrelation and reliability between SPH-HLE and DW-HLE were good (better for males), with low disagreement, and were even better for LE between both institutions. The HLE Bland-Altman plots suggest a variability range of approximately 6 years for both sexes, higher for females. There was also an increasing HLE difference between methods with higher average HLE for both sexes.ConclusionWe showed wide variations between both methods with a clear and different high impact on female and male HLE, showing a tendency for countries with higher health expectancies to yield larger gaps between SPH-HLE and DW-HLE.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Csenkey ◽  
Nina Bindel

Threats against security in the Internet often have a wide-range and can have serious impacts within society. Large quantum computers will be able to break the cryptographic algorithms used to ensure security today, which is known as the quantum threat. Quantum threats are multi-faceted and very complex cybersecurity issues. We use assemblage theory to explore the complexities associated with these threats, including how they are understood within policy and strategy. It is in this way that we explore how the governance of the quantum threat is made visible. Generally, the private and academic sector have been a primary driver in this field, but other actors(especially states) have begun to grapple with the threat and have begun to understand the relation to defence challenges, and pathways to cooperation in order to prepare against the threat. This may pose challenges for traditional avenues of defence cooperation as states attempt to understand and manage the associated technologies and perceived threats. We examine how traditionally cooperating allies attempt to govern the quantum threat by focusing on Australia, Canada, the European Union (EU), New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US). We explore the linkages within post-quantum cryptographic assemblages and identify several governmental interventions as attempts to understand and manage the threat and associated technologies. In examining over 40 policy and strategy-related documents between traditionally defence cooperating allies, we identify six main linkages: Infrastructure, Standardization, Education, Partnerships, Economy, and Defence. These linkages highlight the governmental interventions to govern through standardization and regulation as a way to define to contours of the quantum threat.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonora Bassi

The drone sector offers a wide range of affordances, opportunities, and economic benefits for society. Delivery services, agriculture monitoring, wildfire control, public infrastructure inspections, humanitarian aid, or drone journalism, are among the activities enhanced by unmanned aerial systems (UAS). No surprise the civilian UAS market is growing fast throughout the world. Yet, on a daily basis, newspapers report serious concerns for people infringing other people’s rights through the use of drones. Cybersecurity attacks, data theft, criminal offences brought about the use of this technology frame the picture. Nowadays, several countries are changing their legal rules to properly address such challenges. In 2018, the European Union (EU) started its five year-long regulative process that should establish the common rules and standards for UAS operations within the EU Single Sky by 2023. A similar timeline has been adopted in the United States, so as to provide the jurisdictional boundaries for the civilian use of drones. The United Kingdom (UK) and Japan are adopting new rules too. From a legal point of view, the overall framework is thus rapidly evolving. The aim of this paper is to give attention to (i) privacy and data protection concerns raised by UAS operations; (ii) their monitoring functions and corresponding surveillance issues; and, (iii) how a privacy preserving approach – such as with privacy by design technologies, organizational measures, audit procedures, civic involvement, to name a few – makes a lawful and ethical use of this powerful technology possible.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 749-773
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fisher

There is considerable concern and debate about the economic impacts of environmental regulations. Jonathan Fisher, former Economics Manager at the Environment Agency in England and Wales, reviews the available evidence on this subject. Section 2 presents estimates of the costs and benefits of environmental regulations. Section 3 examines the impacts of environmental regulations on economic growth, innovation and technical change as well as impacts on competitiveness and any movement of businesses to less pollution havens. He questions call for greater certainty regarding future environmental regulations, whereas in fact there should be calls for less uncertainty. This section then suggests how this could be achieved. This section then finishes with an overview of the available evidence. This includes an examination of the Porter Hypothesis that environmental regulations can trigger greater innovation that may partially or more than fully offset the compliance costs. Section 4 then sets out principles for how better environmental regulation can improve its impacts on sustainable economic growth and illustrates how the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive is a good example of the application of these principles in practice. Section 5 reviews current and recent political perspectives regarding developments in environmental regulations across the EU and shows how the United Kingdom (UK) has successfully positively managed to influence such developments so that EU environmental regulations now incorporate many of these principles to improve their impacts on economic growth. Section 5.1 then examines the implications of Brexit for UK environmental regulations. Finally, Section 6 sets out some best practice principles to improve the impacts of environmental regulation on sustainable economic growth, innovation and technical change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-151
Author(s):  
Andrea Circolo ◽  
Ondrej Hamuľák

Abstract The paper focuses on the very topical issue of conclusion of the membership of the State, namely the United Kingdom, in European integration structures. The ques­tion of termination of membership in European Communities and European Union has not been tackled for a long time in the sources of European law. With the adop­tion of the Treaty of Lisbon (2009), the institute of 'unilateral' withdrawal was intro­duced. It´s worth to say that exit clause was intended as symbolic in its nature, in fact underlining the status of Member States as sovereign entities. That is why this institute is very general and the legal regulation of the exercise of withdrawal contains many gaps. One of them is a question of absolute or relative nature of exiting from integration structures. Today’s “exit clause” (Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union) regulates only the termination of membership in the European Union and is silent on the impact of such a step on membership in the European Atomic Energy Community. The presented paper offers an analysis of different variations of the interpretation and solution of the problem. It´s based on the independent solution thesis and therefore rejects an automa­tism approach. The paper and topic is important and original especially because in the multitude of scholarly writings devoted to Brexit questions, vast majority of them deals with institutional questions, the interpretation of Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union; the constitutional matters at national UK level; future relation between EU and UK and political bargaining behind such as all that. The question of impact on withdrawal on Euratom membership is somehow underrepresented. Present paper attempts to fill this gap and accelerate the scholarly debate on this matter globally, because all consequences of Brexit already have and will definitely give rise to more world-wide effects.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Hopkin

Recent elections in the advanced Western democracies have undermined the basic foundations of political systems that had previously beaten back all challenges—from both the Left and the Right. The election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, only months after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, signaled a dramatic shift in the politics of the rich democracies. This book traces the evolution of this shift and argues that it is a long-term result of abandoning the postwar model of egalitarian capitalism in the 1970s. That shift entailed weakening the democratic process in favor of an opaque, technocratic form of governance that allows voters little opportunity to influence policy. With the financial crisis of the late 2000s, these arrangements became unsustainable, as incumbent politicians were unable to provide solutions to economic hardship. Electorates demanded change, and it had to come from outside the system. Using a comparative approach, the text explains why different kinds of anti-system politics emerge in different countries and how political and economic factors impact the degree of electoral instability that emerges. Finally, it discusses the implications of these changes, arguing that the only way for mainstream political forces to survive is for them to embrace a more activist role for government in protecting societies from economic turbulence.


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