INTRODUCTION

Life expectancy is the average number of years a person in a

population could expect to live after age x. It is the life table
parameter most commonly used to compare the survival experience
of populations. The age most often selected to make comparisons
is 0.0 (i.e., birth), although, for many substantive and policy
analyses, other ages such as 65+ and 85+ are more relevant and
may be used.

ACTIVE LIFE EXPECTANCY:

Active life expectancy, the average number of years a person can
expect to live without chronic disability, is a better measure of the
health status of populations in economically developed countries
than total life expectancy because the latter has reached levels
where most early deaths have been prevented and large survival
increases are now likely only at later ages. It is important to assess
whether such life expectancy increases are associated with
improved quality of life, the capability for independent living, and
continued economic activity. 

LIFE EXPECTANCY AND ADULT MORTALITY IN

INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTIRES:
 Life expectancy at birth increased rapidly in industrialized
countries from 1950 to 1970 mainly as a result of the decline
in mortality from infectious diseases brought about by the
introduction of antibiotics. The increase in life expectancy
continued after 1970 in market economy countries. 
 This was mainly attributable to the decline in mortality
from cardiovascular diseases among middle-aged and elderly
people. 
 Female life expectancy is higher than male life expectancy in
all countries, but the size of the difference varies. The sex
differential increased in practically all countries from the 1950s
 to the late 1970s, but then started to diminish in Northern and
Western Europe, North America, and Oceania, where the
average difference was approximately six years in the 1990s.
 The lower life expectancy of men is due partly to biological
and partly to behavioral factors. Persons in
lower socioeconomic positions die on average at a younger
age than those in higher positions. This difference is smaller
among women than men.
 Average global life expectancy is currently 71.5 years. Japanese
women liver longer than anyone else in the world, with an average
life expectancy of 87. In Sierra Leone, on the other hand, men and
women live only to the age of 50 on average. According to the Berlin
Institute for Population and Development, people in the
predominantly wealthy regions of the world live 17 years more on
average than those living in Africa.

REASON FOR INCREASE IN LIFE EXPECTANCY:

Life expectancy around the world has increased steadily for nearly 200 years.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an increase in life expectancy was driven mainly by improvements
in sanitation, housing, and education, causing a steady decline in early and mid-life mortality, which was chiefly due to
infections. This trend continued with the development of vaccines and then antibiotics. By the latter half of the twentieth
century, there was little room for further reduction in early and mid-life mortality. The continuing increase is due almost
entirely to a new phenomenon: the decline in late-life mortality.
PROBLEMS CAUSED BY INCREASED HUMAN LONGETIVITY:
 The major problem with merely increasing life expectancy is that it also increases morbidity
simply because people live long enough to get more age-related disease, disability, dementia
and dysfunction.
 Consequently, disability increases dramatically with age: such that more than 80% of the UK
population over the age of 85 years reports having a disability
  Moreover, disabilities in late life are more likely to be multiple and severe, so that 50% of
people over the age of 85 years require care and/or help with daily activities.
 Decreasing death rates without reducing age-specific morbidity rates will inevitably increase
morbidity, including severe disability and dementia.
 Even in the absence of disease and disability, human abilities—including memory, cognition,
mobility, sight, hearing, taste and communication—decline with age (Fig(Fig3),3), so that the
quality of life for someone older than 90 years is on average very poor 3. Given the increasing
prevalence of multiple diseases, disabilities, dementias and dysfunctions at high age, it is not
obvious that just extending lifespan beyond 90 years of age is a worthwhile undertaking. 
 Consequently, it is unclear why we are currently investing so much money in cancer and
cardiovascular research aimed at reducing death rates in the elderly, if the consequence is
more years lived with disease, dementia, disability and advanced ageing.