Populations have suffered significant changes in the past decade, the majority of them suggesting that people live longer but sicker lives, new study informs. While life expectancy has been significantly prolonged, humans’ health has suffered great losses, according to statistics.
It is no longer a secret that life expectancy has been improved in the past century. There have been many medical breakthroughs that allowed physicians to do away with some of the past century’s affections. However, it is a double-edged sword because living longer does not always imply better life conditions.
A new study published in the journal Lancet shows that life expectancy has been greatly extended on a global scale. The observational research used data that was collected from 188 countries in the period between 1990 and 2013.
Based on the withdrawn information, scientists have concluded that most people manage to live longer by prolonging their illnesses. Thus, their lives are longer, but sicker at the same time, researchers have concluded.
In spite of the disappointing news, there has been a significant improvement in AIDS/HIV and malaria recovery due to the recent medical progress. In addition, medical experts have managed to effectively combat child illnesses with the help of the new treatments.
According to the study, women and men have prolonged their lives with 6.2 years in the time interval between 1990 and 2013. The previous research that has been conducted showed that representatives of the two sexes lived approximately 65.3 years in 1990, whereas in 2013, they rarely live until 71.5 years old.
The same cannot be stated in relation to health expectancy where humans have registered a far smaller improvement. In 1990, the healthy life expectancy amounted to 56.9; since then, there has been only a 5.4-year growth, judging by the 2013 figures (62.3).
The countries where healthy conditions appear to be the poorest are also those with smaller incomes. The study indicates that people are less healthy in South Africa, Belarus, and Paraguay. At the opposite pole, nations with higher economic opportunities have registered an improvement in healthy life expectancy.
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