China News Service, Beijing, July 6th (Reporter Sun Zifa) Springer Nature's professional academic journal "Nature-Aging" recently published a related economics research paper pointing out that the prevention and treatment methods for aging and improving healthy life expectancy The economic benefits generated may reach trillions of dollars.
The paper stated that in this era, more and more people are advocating the concept of "healthy" aging instead of blindly seeking to extend life expectancy.
The economic value of extending healthy life expectancy or fighting aging in a broad sense rather than fighting specific diseases is receiving great attention and shows broad prospects.
Corresponding author of the paper, Andrew Scott (London Business School, UK), and colleagues used the existing economic, health, and demographic data in the United States to build an economic model for the prolonged life expectancy, improved health, and changes in the rate of aging. Calculate the specific amount of economic benefits.
In order to make the model clearer, they introduced 4 different test scenarios and explained them with the help of 4 famous virtual characters to help readers understand.
These 4 characters are Peter Pan, Wolverine, Dowling Gray, and Strudbrugg, respectively representing delayed aging, reversal of aging, long healthy life but short life expectancy, and long life expectancy but poor health. .
Simulations show that interventions aimed at aging have economic value, because these interventions are expected to extend both healthy lifespan and life expectancy.
It is estimated that the annual economic benefits due to the extension of life span amount to US$38 trillion, significantly exceeding previous expectations.
They also found that the most economically valuable approach is to ensure that healthy life expectancy is proportional to life expectancy. The more ideal the way of aging, the greater the value of further improving aging.
The author of the paper stated that, like all model studies, the specific numbers obtained in the study are very sensitive to the input data and the precise calibration of the model: regardless of the difference between the previous estimates, the economic value of improving aging remains the same.
They believe that from an economic point of view, this further affirms the value of research on the prevention and treatment of aging compared to the research on the prevention and treatment of individual diseases.
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