Umass Study: Healthy Life Expectancy Greater

With each generation, the average life expectancy increased thanks to advances in medical technology, but a new study released by the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) shows Americans can look forward to more healthy years, too.

Researchers at UMMS, the National Bureau of Economic Research and Harvard University synthesized data from a number of government-sponsored health surveys over the last 21 years to measure how quality-adjusted life expectancy for Americans has changed over time.

According to the findings, published on Sept. 12 in the American Journal of Public Health, a 25-year-old person today can expect to live 6 percent, or 2.4 quality years, longer than a 25-year-old in 1987. A 65-year-old person, on the other hand, will gain 1.7 quality years – a 14-percent increase from a generation ago.

According to Dr. Allison Rosen, associate professor of Quanitative Health Sciences at UMMS and the study's senior author, the quality years measure the added quality of life a person enjoys thanks to better health care today, in terms of physical, emotional and mental well-being.

“Though many studies have measured this in different ways, this is really the first time we've been able to capture this type of information across the whole U.S. Population over an extended period,” Rosen said in a statement.

According to a statement from UMMS, advances in health care has made many common medical conditions more treatable than they were 25 years ago. For example, Rosen said a person who suffers from a heart attack today is far less likely to require round-the-clock care than in generations past.

On the other, modern Americans are more likely to suffer decreased quality of life related to chronic, degenerative disease, like Alzheimers, while younger people are experiencing problems related to sedentary lifestyles, according to the study.