Global Healthspan-Lifespan Gaps Among 183 World Health Organization Member States.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Retrospective cross-sectional ecological analysis of national-level aggregate health data.
PubMed 39661386 · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.50241
What was done
This retrospective cross-sectional study analyzed national-level data from the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Health Observatory spanning two decades across 183 WHO member states. The authors evaluated changes in total life expectancy, health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE), and the resulting healthspan-lifespan gap, stratified by sex, and evaluated correlations between this gap and metrics of morbidity and mortality.
What was found
Over the past two decades, the global healthspan-lifespan gap expanded to 9.6 years across the 183 member states. Women had a significantly wider gap than men, with a mean difference of 2.4 years (SD 0.5; P < .001). The gap positively correlated with the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and total morbidity, but negatively correlated with mortality. The United States showed the largest gap among evaluated states at 12.4 years, driven primarily by noncommunicable disease burdens.
Why it matters
Longevity gains globally are not being matched by equivalent gains in healthy years, leading to an increasing number of years lived in poor health, particularly among women and countries with high burdens of noncommunicable diseases.
Limits
The study is based on aggregate, national-level modeled registry data rather than individual longitudinal patient tracking, introducing potential ecological fallacy. Specific absolute life expectancy and HALE figures across individual regions were not detailed in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports The sex difference between men and women in healthspan is smaller than the sex difference in lifespan.