A new study reveals a concerning trend: while life expectancy increases, the quality of those years is declining. The healthspan-lifespan gap, the difference between years lived in good health and total lifespan, is widening globally. Australia faces a significant gap, highlighting a need for addressing lifestyle diseases and promoting healthy aging.
When we consider how we want to age, we often think about it in numerical terms, saying we want to live until 100 or for as long as possible. But a new study suggests we should be looking at more than the number of birthdays we’d like to be around to celebrate. Taking data from 183 World Health Organisation Member States, including Australia, researchers looked at the healthspan-lifespan gap, which is the divide between years lived in good health and years lived.
Australia was among the countries with the greatest healthspan-lifespan gap, sitting at 12.1 years, second only to the United States with a gap of 12.4 years. Globally, it found the mean gap had risen to 9.6 years in the past two decades.While life expectancy has risen dramatically around the world in the past few decades, health-adjusted life expectancy (years lived without disease) has remained relatively stagnant. This means that while we are living longer, we are living a greater proportion of our lives burdened with disease. According to researchers, musculoskeletal diseases, mental and substance use disorders, and neurological disorders contributed most to disease burden. Professor Luigi Fontana, scientific director of the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, says major advancements in the medical field mean we have become far better at treating acute morbidity, allowing us to live longer. But he says things like high rates of obesity and a rise in lifestyle diseases – including among younger people – mean we are not necessarily living better. “There is no doubt that the major advancements in treatments has been spectacular ... but the epidemic of unhealthy ageing and unhealthy lifestyle is causing problems,” he says.Jaya Dantas, a professor of international health at Curtin University, points out that some countries, including Rwanda and Nigeria, saw the greatest increases in both healthspan and lifespan, in part due to reduced conflict across the region and advances in healthcar
HEALTHSPAN LIFESPAN HEALTHY AGING DISEASE BURDEN LIFESTYLE DISEASES
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