The economic value of targeting aging
Developments in life expectancy and the growing emphasis on biological and ‘healthy’ aging raise a number of important questions for health scientists and economists alike. Is it preferable to make lives healthier by compressing morbidity, or longer by extending life? What are the gains from targeti...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Nature
2021
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| _version_ | 1797056379833286656 |
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| author | Scott, AJ Ellison, M Sinclair, DA |
| author_facet | Scott, AJ Ellison, M Sinclair, DA |
| author_sort | Scott, AJ |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Developments in life expectancy and the growing emphasis on biological and ‘healthy’ aging raise a number of important questions for health scientists and economists alike. Is it preferable to make lives healthier by compressing morbidity, or longer by extending life? What are the gains from targeting aging itself compared to efforts to eradicate specific diseases? Here we analyze existing data to evaluate the economic value of increases in life expectancy, improvements in health and treatments that target aging. We show that a compression of morbidity that improves health is more valuable than further increases in life expectancy, and that targeting aging offers potentially larger economic gains than eradicating individual diseases. We show that a slowdown in aging that increases life expectancy by 1 year is worth US$38 trillion, and by 10 years, US$367 trillion. Ultimately, the more progress that is made in improving how we age, the greater the value of further improvements. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:22:36Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:1a9cd52a-0249-4223-8371-64d8ec12a215 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:22:36Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:1a9cd52a-0249-4223-8371-64d8ec12a2152022-03-26T10:55:54ZThe economic value of targeting agingJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1a9cd52a-0249-4223-8371-64d8ec12a215EnglishSymplectic ElementsSpringer Nature2021Scott, AJEllison, MSinclair, DADevelopments in life expectancy and the growing emphasis on biological and ‘healthy’ aging raise a number of important questions for health scientists and economists alike. Is it preferable to make lives healthier by compressing morbidity, or longer by extending life? What are the gains from targeting aging itself compared to efforts to eradicate specific diseases? Here we analyze existing data to evaluate the economic value of increases in life expectancy, improvements in health and treatments that target aging. We show that a compression of morbidity that improves health is more valuable than further increases in life expectancy, and that targeting aging offers potentially larger economic gains than eradicating individual diseases. We show that a slowdown in aging that increases life expectancy by 1 year is worth US$38 trillion, and by 10 years, US$367 trillion. Ultimately, the more progress that is made in improving how we age, the greater the value of further improvements. |
| spellingShingle | Scott, AJ Ellison, M Sinclair, DA The economic value of targeting aging |
| title | The economic value of targeting aging |
| title_full | The economic value of targeting aging |
| title_fullStr | The economic value of targeting aging |
| title_full_unstemmed | The economic value of targeting aging |
| title_short | The economic value of targeting aging |
| title_sort | economic value of targeting aging |
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