Disability in older people – indicators, process and outcomes

This special edition was conceived to illustrate the wide-ranging work of the International Network on Health Expectancy and the Disability Process (REVES) and in particular its applicability for those involved in providing care at both population and individual levels. First we will briefly describe the reasons behind the development of the REVES network and the hypotheses in the relationship between mortality and disability under discussion at that time. In addressing these hypotheses it became clear that REVES could provide a role in the harmonization of both measurement of disability and calculation methods for health expectancies. The growth of longitudinal studies led to a deeper understanding of the disablement process in older people and we shall describe the main models, as an