The effect of regional politics on regional life expectancy in Italy (1980-2010).

Background: The evidence on the association between politics and health is scarce considering the importance of this topic for population health. Studies that investigated the effect of different political regimes on health outcomes show inconsistent results.

Methods: Bayesian time-series cross-section analyses are used to examine the overall impact of regional politics on variations in Italian regional life expectancy (LE) at birth during the period 1980-2010.

Small-area health comparisons using health-adjusted life expectancies: a Bayesian random-effects approach.

Health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) is one of the most attractive summary measures of population health. It provides balanced attention to fatal as well as non-fatal health outcomes, is sensitive to the severity of morbidity within the population, and can be readily compared between areas with very different population age structures. HALE, however, cannot be calculated at the small-area level using traditional life table methodology.

The impact of nursing homes on small-area life expectancies.

The geographical distribution of nursing homes can significantly distort small-area life expectancy estimations. Consequently, uncorrected life expectancies should not be used for small-area life expectancy comparisons. Instead, several nursing home corrections have been proposed.

Comparison of Bayesian random-effects and traditional life expectancy estimations in small-area applications.

There are several measures that summarize the mortality experience of a population. Of these measures, life expectancies are generally preferred based on their simpler interpretation and direct age standardization, which makes them directly comparable between different populations. However, traditional life expectancy estimations are highly inaccurate for smaller populations and consequently are seldom used in small-area applications.