Projections of the burden of disease and disability in Finland – health policy prospects (PoDDy-HePo)

With the rapid ageing of the population in Europe, it is increasingly important to obtain reliable estimates of the future development of the disease and disability burden as well as healthy and disease free life years in the older sections of the population. The same concerns the health and functional ability of the working aged population who must provide the financial resources and manpower necessary for maintaining and caring for the older population. Furthermore, in order to optimise the allocation of resources, evidence-based health policy requires a valid assessment of the future benefits and costs of different preventive and remedial measures aiming to improve public health. Ideally, health projections should take into account the history and current levels of health and its determinants as well as potential scenarios for changes in the health determinants in the total population and sub-groups.

Evidence based health policy planning requires the best available information on the future development of the main public health problems and how to influence this development.

The project is funded by the Academy of Finland (307907).