BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Springer Nature's professional academic journal Nature has recently published a relevant economic research paper pointing out that the economic benefits of prevention and control measures for aging and improving healthy life expectancy may reach trillions of dollars.
The paper said that in today's era, more and more people advocate the concept of "healthy" aging, rather than blindly pursuing life expectancy. The economic value of extending healthy life expectancy or fighting aging in a broad sense rather than specific diseases is receiving great attention and promising prospects.
Corresponding author Andrew Scott and colleagues at The London Business School in the United Kingdom used existing economic, health, and demographic data in the United States to construct an economic model that calculates specific amounts for the economic benefits of life expectancy, improved health, and changes in the rate of aging. To make the model clearer, they introduced 4 different test scenarios and illustrated them with the help of 4 famous virtual characters to help the reader understand. The four figures are Peter Pan, Wolverine, Dowling Gray, and Strude Brugger, representing delayed aging, reverse aging, long healthy life expectancy but short life expectancy, and long life expectancy but poor health, respectively.
Simulations show that interventions against aging have economic value, as they are expected to extend both healthy and life expectancy. It is estimated that the economic benefits of life extensions amount to $38 trillion per year, significantly exceeding previous expectations. They also found that the most economically valuable approach is to ensure that healthy life expectancy is proportional to life expectancy, and that the more ideal the way of aging, the greater the value of further improving aging.
The authors say that, like all model studies, the specific numbers that resulted from the study were sensitive to the input data and the model's precise calibration: the economic value of improving aging remained the same, regardless of the difference between previous estimates. From an economic point of view, they argue, this further affirms the value of anti-aging research compared to the study of individual diseases. (End)
Source: China News Network