The good life, longer
Average Americans today can look forward to two more years of healthy life than they could have just a generation ago, Harvard researchers have found By synthesizing the data collected in government-sponsored health surveys conducted over recent decades, Susan Stewart, a researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research, David Cutler, the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics and professor in the Harvard Department of Global Health and Population, and Allison Rosen, associate professor of quantitative health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, were able to measure how the quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) of Americans has changed over time. The study’s findings are described in a paper published today in the American Journal of Public Health. “What we’re talking about in this study is not simply life expectancy, but quality-adjusted life expectancy,” Stewart explained. “Many studies have measured this in different ways, but this is really the first time we’ve...