Poor commentary with no documentation or citation. At least point to the source of data for 200 plus countries. Presumably from IHME at the University of Washington.
This paper is worth reading. The caricature is not.
Global, regional, and national trends in the morbidity gap and contributing diseases, injuries, and risk factors, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023,” The Lancet Public Health, 2026, DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(26)00098-8
Also lovely new longitudinal data on centenarian heath across lifespan for a very large Swedish population that demonstrates persistent morbidity advantages compared to very well matched non-centenarians. Fun papers too:
DOI:
10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103396
DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igaf050
DOU: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003784
And these conditions account are major contributors to the change:
depression, anxiety, hearing loss, and low back pain. All are highly subject to diagnostic drift.
In our village, people used to die of old age only and not due to any health problems. Village doctors used plant based medicine and treat the common illness such as fever or broken bones. This was in the 60's and 70's.
8 comments
[ 0.25 ms ] story [ 2.2 ms ] threadThis paper is worth reading. The caricature is not.
Global, regional, and national trends in the morbidity gap and contributing diseases, injuries, and risk factors, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023,” The Lancet Public Health, 2026, DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(26)00098-8
Also lovely new longitudinal data on centenarian heath across lifespan for a very large Swedish population that demonstrates persistent morbidity advantages compared to very well matched non-centenarians. Fun papers too: DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103396
DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igaf050
DOU: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003784
And these conditions account are major contributors to the change: depression, anxiety, hearing loss, and low back pain. All are highly subject to diagnostic drift.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UiVKh97rJsg
The choices you make over 50+ years keep you healthy: reasonable exercise, sleep, and diet; avoiding chronic stress, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, obesity.
If I only knew how