International Gains to Achieving Healthy Longevity.

Utilizing economic tools, we evaluate the gains from improving the relationship between biological and chronological age in dollar terms. We show that the gains to individuals are substantial because targeting aging exploits synergies between health and life expectancy and the complementarities across different diseases. Gains are boosted by improvements in life expectancy and a rising number of older people.

The economic value of targeting aging.

Developments in life expectancy and the growing emphasis on biological and 'healthy' aging raise a number of important questions for health scientists and economists alike. Is it preferable to make lives healthier by compressing morbidity, or longer by extending life? What are the gains from targeting aging itself compared to efforts to eradicate specific diseases? Here we analyze existing data to evaluate the economic value of increases in life expectancy, improvements in health and treatments that target aging. We show that a compression of morbidity that improves health is more valuable than further increases in life expectancy, and that targeting aging offers potentially larger economic gains than eradicating individual diseases.