  The development of health indicators to measure healthy life expectancy (HLE)
is an active field of research aimed at summarizing the health of a population.
Although many health indicators have emerged in the literature as critical
metrics in public health assessments, the methods and data to conduct this
evaluation vary considerably in nature and quality. Traditionally, health data
collection relies on population surveys. However, these studies, typically of
limited size, encompass only a small yet representative segment of the
population. This limitation can necessitate the separate estimation of
incidence and mortality rates, significantly restricting the available analysis
methods. In this article, we leverage an extract from the French National
Hospital Discharge database to define health indicators. Our analysis focuses
on the resulting Disease-Free Life Expectancy (Dis-FLE) indicator, which
provides insights based on the hospital trajectory of each patient admitted to
hospital in France during 2008-13. Through this research, we illustrate the
advantages and disadvantages of employing large clinical datasets as the
foundation for more robust health indicators. We shed light on the
opportunities that such data offer for a more comprehensive understanding of
the health status of a population. In particular, we estimate age-dependent
hazard rates associated with sex, alcohol abuse, tobacco consumption, and
obesity, as well as geographic location. Simultaneously, we delve into the
challenges and limitations that arise when adopting such a data-driven
approach.
