4 ms·
Longevity is a poor metric anyway - we need to emphasize quality * years
by fire_lake 2y ago
Longevity is a poor metric anyway - we need to emphasize quality * years
- melling 2y agoYes, someone always says this. Health span is the term. Maybe we can all use the term and skip this discussion https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/what-is-health-span https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/what-is-health-span
- ImaCake 2y agoQuality of Life Years, QALYs, is a commonly used term in epidemiology/biostatistics.
- Mistletoe 2y agoBlue Zones were supposed to be examples of that too.
- tsimionescu 2y agoThe two are greatly correlated, so at a population level it's a distinction without a difference. There's no population of people all living to be 100 but spending their 90s on a respirator. The distinction matters for individual health decisions, and for comparing different interventions, where you can extend someone's life at the cost of their quality of life.
- resoluteteeth 2y agoIn theory that is a reasonable distinction (and that type of trade-off can come up in very specific situations like treatment of terminal disease in elderly people) but in terms of lifestyle choices there is currently no known difference between lifestyle choices that increase expected longevity and lifestyle choices that increase expected quality years.