Vitality Research Institute
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Maximising the number of years lived in good health
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Looking beyond life expectancy
When we discuss healthspan, it’s important to make clear the distinction between the term’s lifespan and healthspan. What is healthspan?
Healthspan [or healthy life expectancy]
The number of years a person can expect to live in good health.
Lifespan [or life expectancy]
The number of years a person lives.
Healthspan gap
The difference between a person's lifespan and their healthspan due to factors like disease, injury and frailty.The widening healthspan gap in the UK
However, while life expectancy has grown by over five years since 1990, healthy life expectancy has grown at a slower rate. Partly due to lifestyle choices, this has led to a widening healthspan gap and lower quality of life. Currently the healthspan data shows around 7.3 million healthy years of life are lost in the UK every year.
The implications of a widening healthspan gap
The effects of a widening healthspan gap can be seen elsewhere too. UK workforces are experiencing productivity loss, causing businesses to lose up to £39 billion per year. This is down to the poor lifestyle choices and mental health issues of employees. Furthermore, largely preventable chronic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, are becoming more common. This means the healthcare system is facing mounting costs as well.
From this, it’s clear that improving our healthspan should be a top priority. The economic pay-off of reducing the healthspan gap is considerable. What's more, reversing the causes of the widening healthspan gap will allow the benefits to be sustained long into the future.
Prevention and behaviour change are the solution
So, what can be done to improve healthspan?
To encourage healthy lifestyle behaviours and reduce metabolic risks, and ultimately increase healthspan overall, we need well-structured health strategies that combine treatment with prevention. These should be a coalition of individual, corporate and governmental action. The positive consequences of improving healthspan will not just benefit the individual, but the collective, as it will have knock-on effects for the economy.
Our report highlights physical activity and a healthy diet as key actions. An encouraging health insurance plan can contribute here, too. To examine our reasons, as well as our proposed action points, read the full report.
"While life expectancy provides a measure of a society’s progress, it is our health span, the number of years we can expect to live in good health, that should demand our attention with a focus on quality of life."
- Professor Dame Carol Black
Expert Adviser on Health and Work to the Department of Health (England) and former Principal of Newnham College CambridgeMore research
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Apple Watch study
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We wrote this study in partnership with RAND Europe. It assesses the link between Vitality’s Active Rewards with Apple Watch benefit and a sustained improvement in physical activity.
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Workplace study
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This article looks at how companies’ wellbeing strategies affect employee health and wellbeing. We carried out the study in collaboration with University of East Anglia researchers.
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Employee engagement
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This study explores how engagement in workplace wellness interventions impact employee health. We carried this out in collaboration with researchers from Stanford University.
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Global physical activity
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We carried this study out with RAND Europe and researchers from the University of Birmingham. It looks at how an increase in physical activity can benefit the global economy.
