Can We Live Longer, Healthier Lives?

Abstract

The author proposes to measure healthy life expectancy and study disability trends in order (i) to answer whether compression of morbidity is occuring while life expectancy increases; (ii) to uncover sociodemographic and behavorial factors that determine healthy aging and might be amenable to intervention; and (iii) to compare the prevalence of older people who can be considered to be "aging well" in different countries in order to identify macrolevel factors that affect the aging process.