New concept of healthy life

Since the 20th century, with the improvement of civilization and the rapid development of medicine, the mortality rate has dropped significantly. The baby birth peaks since the First and Second World Wars have led to a rapid increase in the elderly population, and the proportion of the elderly population in the total population has increased rapidly, which has led to a rapid aging of the population in developed countries and some developing countries. Due to the increase of the elderly population, the change of population structure will naturally lead to the corresponding change of population health, that is, the proportion of unhealthy population will rise with the increase of the proportion of the elderly population. However, under such circumstances, people do not know to what extent the health status of the population will deteriorate, nor do they know what and how much burden it will bring to society. People are beginning to worry about medical expenses, which will rise sharply with the increase of disabled population or cared-for population. Therefore, people began to pay more attention to the health problems of the population.

In recent years, some countries, including China, have a problem: with the rapid aging of the population, the average life expectancy has increased, but the health level of the population has declined: various geriatric diseases have emerged one after another. A considerable number of elderly people suffer from various diseases, and many people can't take care of themselves in bed all the year round, that is to say, they may not live healthily even if they live for a long time. According to the estimation of data from a follow-up survey in the United States, the life expectancy of the male population in the United States increased by 3. 1 year and the female population increased by 3.0 years during the ten years from 1970 to 1980. At the same time, the non-disabled life expectancy of the male population has only increased by 0.7 years, while the non-disabled life expectancy of the female population has hardly increased. Australian data from 198 1 to 1988 show that the life expectancy of men and women increased by 1.7 years and1years respectively, but the life expectancy of men and women without disabilities decreased by 0.8 years and/respectively. These two examples show that although the life expectancy is increasing, the life expectancy without disability is changing in the opposite direction, which leads to the extension of unhealthy life expectancy. This shows that it is far from enough to reflect health status by mortality or average life expectancy, and living long does not necessarily mean living healthy. Further research found that the longer you live in a crowd, the less healthy people are.

At this time, people really began to realize that health can lead to longevity, but longevity is not necessarily health, and health and longevity are often inconsistent. Because longevity is not equal to health, we should be able to measure the quality of life while measuring the number of lives (that is, the length and life span of life). Healthy life span is such an index that can measure both the quantity and quality of life.

1993, the World Health Organization put forward the slogan of health and longevity, clearly pointing out that not only longevity should be guaranteed, but also the quality of life should be guaranteed.

Then, in the introduction of the World Health Report 1997, the World Health Organization further clearly pointed out that the increase of life span without the improvement of life quality is worthless, that is, a healthy life span is more important than life span. Therefore, the Jakarta Declaration of the World Health Organization further emphasizes that our ultimate goal is to improve the healthy life expectancy of the population and narrow the gap between countries or organizations. This is actually what our ancients have long emphasized: health and longevity. In a word, health and longevity are becoming the goal pursued by all mankind.

What is a healthy life span? Healthy living actually involves two aspects: health and longevity. The definition of life span is relatively simple, that is, the age at which a person dies, or the calendar age. The definition of health is much more complicated. The World Health Organization once defined health as a state of physical, psychological, social and personality integrity, not just the absence of disease or weakness.