Global Study Reveals Widening Gap Between Lifespan and Healthspan
The gap between lifespan and healthy years grew by nearly two years, with people spending 14.5% of life in poor health in 2023, researchers said.
- On Tuesday, a new Global Burden of Disease study published in The Lancet Public Health revealed that people are living longer but spending more years in poor health, with the global morbidity gap reaching 10.7 years in 2023.
- Within a generation, the global morbidity gap widened by nearly two years, rising from 8.8 years in 1990 to 10.7 years in 2023, while people spent 14.5% of their lives in poor health compared with 13.6% in 1990.
- High-Income countries face the widest morbidity gaps, with the United States recording a 14-year gap, followed by Australia at 13.9 years and Canada at 13.7 years; women consistently experience larger gaps than men across all development levels.
- Musculoskeletal disorders and mental health issues accounted for 57.4% of unhealthy years in 2023, prompting Armin Garmany, first author at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, to call for "an accelerated pivot to proactive wellness-centric care systems."
- Dr. Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine, argues "progress in healthy aging should be measured not only by lifespan, but by healthspan," urging greater investment in prevention and long-term care.
21 Articles
21 Articles
Longer lives, worse health? Scientists uncover troubling trend across generations – Democratic Accent
People across the world are living longer, but they’re also spending more years coping with ill health, a recent study observed. The “morbidity gap” — the number of years people spend in poor health, typically struggling with chronic challenges such as low back pain, hearing loss and depression — widened across 203 of 204 countries analyzed, and was the most pronounced in America, the researchers found. “Globally in 2023, an average of 14·5% of …
Life expectancy is increasing worldwide, but people are spending more and more time on poor health at the end of their lives. This applies to particularly wealthy countries. However, many health restrictions in old age would be avoidable. According to the study, people spent an average of 8.8 years in poor health in 1990. At 10.7 years, it was almost two years more in 2023, as an international research team, after evaluating global data for the …
The analysis of international data shows that life expectancy is increasing in almost all regions of the world. However, the additional years of life are usually associated with health problems – because one factor is still underestimated.
Mind the Gap: The growing divide between lifespan and good health
Over the past three decades, global advances in medicine have significantly extended human lifespan, but gains in healthy living have failed to keep pace. This imbalance has created a widening "morbidity gap," where we spend over a decade in poor health. Will a shift in focus for healthcare systems make a difference?
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