Lexicon
Healthspan
Definition
Healthspan is commonly framed as disease-free life expectancy, the portion of life spent in good health rather than merely alive. [1] Across the literature, healthspan definitions vary widely, describing the absence of various disease and or disability and being operationalized by measuring the onset of chronic diseases, disability or performance limitations. [2]
Connected concepts
How it's measured
A systematic review of 187 articles that defined healthspan found that its definitions and operationalization are not standardized, hampering comparisons of data, with only two definitions including subjective measures such as quality of life. [2] The authors of that review conclude that a consensus on the definition and operationalization of healthspan is urgently needed. [2]
Relationship to lifespan
Human life expectancy has greatly increased in recent decades, but this has not been accompanied by a similar increase in healthspan. [3] Longer human lives have led to a global burden of late-life disease, motivating efforts to extend the trait of experiencing little ill health in old age to the general population. [4]
Evidence & applications
Community knowledge
## Healthspan and Chronological Age
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- 1.Abdellatif M, Rainer PP, Sedej S, Kroemer G. Hallmarks of cardiovascular ageing. Nat Rev Cardiol · 2023
- 2.Masfiah S, Kurnialandi A, Meij JJ, Maier AB. Definitions of healthspan: A systematic review. Ageing Res Rev · 2025
- 3.Li Z, Zhang Z, Ren Y, Wang Y, Fang J, Yue H, Ma S, Guan F. Aging and age-related diseases: from mechanisms to therapeutic strategies. Biogerontology · 2021
- 4.Partridge L, Deelen J, Slagboom PE. Facing up to the global challenges of ageing. Nature · 2018
- 5.Green CL, Lamming DW, Fontana L. Molecular mechanisms of dietary restriction promoting health and longevity. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol · 2022
- 6.Zhang L, Pitcher LE, Prahalad V, Niedernhofer LJ, Robbins PD. Targeting cellular senescence with senotherapeutics: senolytics and senomorphics.
Community discussion
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