Health Span-Lifespan Gaps Widening Globally

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 11, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Health span-lifespan gaps, resulting from health-adjusted life expectancy lagging behind longevity gains, are growing worldwide, with women exhibiting a larger gap than men, according to a study published online Dec. 11 in JAMA Network Open.

Armin Garmany and Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, quantified the health span-lifespan gap across the globe in a retrospective, cross-sectional study using the World Health Organization Global Health Observatory. The 183 WHO member states were assessed, with data representing two decades of follow-up.

The researchers found that during the last two decades, the health span-lifespan gap widened globally among the WHO member states, extending to 9.6 years. There was a sex difference observed: Compared with men, women presented a mean health span-lifespan gap that was 2.4 years wider. There was a positive association seen for health span-lifespan gaps with the burden of noncommunicable diseases and total morbidity and a negative association with mortality. The largest health span-lifespan gap was seen for the United States, amounting to 12.4 years, which was related to an increase in noncommunicable diseases.

“These results underscore that around the world, while people live longer, they live a greater number of years burdened by disease,” the authors write. “To identify drivers of the health span-lifespan gap, associated demographic, health, and economic characteristics need to be investigated by geography.”

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