New Generation of Americans to Live Longer, Have More Quality Years of Life

The average American born today can expect to live nearly 4 years longer than a person born two decades ago, according to a news study by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), which also found a correlation between the increased longevity and the number of active, healthy years a person can expect to live.

Publishing their work in the American Journal of Public Health, the researchers say that for the fist time ever they were able to measure how the quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) of all Americans has changed over time. The study synthesized data collected from multiple government-sponsored health surveys conducted over the past 21 years.

Senior study author Allison Rosen, MD, an associate professor of Quantitative Health Sciences at UMMS, said the QALE tells much more than just how long a person can expect to live.

"It tells us what the relative quality of those added years are in terms of physical, emotional and mental well-being," she said. "Though many studies have measured this in different ways, this is really the first time we've been able to capture this type of information across the whole U.S. population over an extended period."

The study revealed that a 25-year-old person today can expect to live six percent, or 2.4 quality years, longer than their 1987 counterpart.

The data collected by the study reveal that Americans are loving longer, reporting fewer symptoms of disease, have more energy, and show less impairment to everyday tasks than they did a generation ago.

A 65-year-old person can expect 1.7 quality years over their counterpart from a generation ago.

Dr. Rosen said that part of the explanation for why Americans are seeing a gain in quality years is improved health care, with many more conditions being more treatable today than they were 20 years ago.

"Today, it is far less likely that a patient recovering from a heart attack will become institutionalized or need around-the-clock care the way they once might have," Rosen said.

While Americans are living longer, more quality years, health problems are still prevalent. Americans today are likely to see quality of life declines related to chronic and degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Meanwhile, younger generations are seeing health problems related to a sedentary lifestyle. The study authors also identified some troubling health trends including increased anxiety in young and middle aged people and younger people having more difficulty walking.

Assessing American health in terms of quality of life has been a challenge over the years because the definition of quality life is different for many, and the myriad health surveys Americans takes each year often are not all asking the same questions.

"Comprehensive measures of the overall health of the nation are practically nonexistent," said Rosen. "This study shows how existing national data can be used to systematically measure whether the population is getting healthier -- not just living longer."

Rosen said the at the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act goes into full effect in 2014, the value of a comprehensive, single survey to assess the quality of American life and health will become even more essential.

"Having a consistent measure of population health represents a major advance in our ability to measure the impact of health care reform on the health -- not just the health care use -- of all Americans," said Rosen. "The bottom line in assessing the success of the ACA is whether or not we are getting the most health from our investment of increasingly limited resources. Are we getting the most health bang for our bucks?"