Longevity & AgingLonger Lives Leave More Years With Illness as Cardiometabolic Disease Rises
People are living longer worldwide, but gains in healthy years are not keeping pace. This narrative review examines global and regional trends in lifespan, healthy lifespan, and heart and metabolic diseases. Between 1990 and 2019, global life expectancy increased by 8.1 years, while healthy life expectancy increased by 6.6 years. Cardiovascular disease alone accounted for 19.2 million deaths in 2023. Even where cardiovascular death rates have fallen after accounting for age, population growth, aging, and rising metabolic risks have increased the overall burden. Poorer countries face infectious diseases alongside growing cardiometabolic illness; wealthier countries face more illness despite slowing lifespan gains. The practical message is to prioritize cardiovascular and metabolic prevention, not just longer survival. This summary uses only the abstract, which does not establish which interventions best close the gap.
