Sullivan Method
The Sullivan method is a simple, widely used technique for estimating health expectancy — the average number of years a person can expect to live in a given health state, such as free of disability. Introduced by Daniel Sullivan in 1971, it combines an ordinary period life table with the observed age-specific prevalence of the health state, partitioning life-table person-years into healthy and unhealthy years without requiring any longitudinal transition data.
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Sources
- Sullivan, D. F. (1971). A single index of mortality and morbidity. HSMHA Health Reports, 86(4), 347–354. link ↗
- Preston, S. H., Heuveline, P., & Guillot, M. (2001). Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes. Blackwell. ISBN: 9781557864512
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Sullivan Method for Health Expectancy. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/demography/sullivan-method
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- Gompertz-Makeham Law of MortalityDemography↔ compare
- Lee-Carter ModelDemography↔ compare
- Life TableDemography↔ compare
- Multistate Life TableDemography↔ compare